Question

State the important properties of anode rays.

Answer 1

Definition

An anode ray (also positive ray or canal ray) is a beam of positive ions that are created by certain types of gases at low pressure in discharge tubes by applying high voltage.

Properties of anode rays

• They travel in straight lines.
• They are the streams of positive ions of the gas enclosed in the discharge tube. The mass of each ion is nearly equal to the mass of the atom.
• They are deflected by both electrical and magnetic fields. Their deflection is opposite to that of cathode rays.
• The charge on positively charged particles constituting the anode rays is found to depend on the nature of the gas-filled discharge tube. However, the charge is found to be a whole number multiple of the charge of an electron.
• The charge /mass ratio(e/m) of the positively charged particles was found constant but it depends on the nature of the gas taken in the discharge tube. The value of e/m for different gases was found different by Goldstein.