The Cassini Orbiter spacecraft collected immense amounts of data about other planets and moons in our solar system during its twenty year mission that began in 1997. As it flew through the upper atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, Cassini measured which molecules were present in the atmosphere using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The basic idea is that a molecule is ionized -- given a net charge of +e -- and accelerated from rest through a potential of 31 kV. Then by measuring the time it takes to fly across a distance 16 cm you can know the mass of molecule (and hence have a good idea about which molecule it is). Given these parameters, what is the time-of-flight for a water molecule in such a device, measured in nano-seconds. Give your answer to 3 significant digits.
The Cassini Orbiter spacecraft collected immense amounts of data about other planets and moons in our solar system during its twenty year mission that began in 1997. As it flew through the upper atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, Cassini measured which molecules were present in the atmosphere using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The basic idea is that a molecule is ionized -- given a net charge of +e -- and accelerated from rest through a potential of 31 kV. Then by measuring the time it takes to fly across a distance 16 cm you can know the mass of molecule (and hence have a good idea about which molecule it is). Given these parameters, what is the time-of-flight for a water molecule in such a device, measured in nano-seconds. Give your answer to 3 significant digits.
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