In question 2.1 of the Drude Model, you are suppose to find an expression for the collision time (T).
My first thought was: I need to use the drude equation of motion. However, it says calculate and I am not sure how with the data given in the introduction or are you supposed to give an expression of the collision time?
Hello Lotte!
To answer this question we need to estimate the room temperature and use the expression for \tau shown in the lecture notes, known as Matthiessen’s rule. To do this we’ll need to calculate the electron density.
Chipping in here. Conceptually there are two ways of relating concepts in the course. One is when we derive one microscopic concept from another. For example the relation between the mean free path and the scattering time is microscopic—the ratio of these two is the Fermi velocity. Here we are given the information about macroscopic behavior—resistivity, and are not given information about the microscopic mechanisms of scattering. Therefore we want to infer microscopic properties from macroscopically measurable ones. Drude model relates resistivity to scattering time, but requires information about the electron concentration. Can we use the density of copper, atomic weight, and the number of electrons per atom to determine electron density?
