Photoelectric Effect Essay

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Experiment: Photoelectric Effect Course Name/Section: Physics 222 Section 012 Date: April 12, 2012 Conclusion The slope of the first order stopping potentials was 0.3753 which yielded an h value of 6.0048x10-34Js, which was 9.38% off of the accepted h value of 6.6x10-34Js. The second order stopping potential’s slope was 0.4255. This yielded an h value of 6.808x10-34Js, which was 2.75% off of the accepted h value. There were many sources of error in this experiment. The percent error is much higher for the first order stopping potential than for the second. This may be due to the fact that the lamp was not fully heated when the measurements were taken. There was not a gauge anywhere to tell when the lamp was fully heated, so it was more of a guessing game than anything. Another source of error may have been the ambient light in the lab. This may have entered the detector during the experiment, skewing the data. This is an experiment that needs to be performed in total darkness, but it was not possible due to the blinds not blocking out all of the sunlight and the computers being on throughout the experiment. A final cause of error may have been the yellow and green filters2. They have been inadequate, insufficiently blocking high frequency light. These unwelcome high energy photons would have ejected high energy electrons, allowing them to surpass the cathode-anode potential, which would have increased the measured stopping
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