Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-1/section-a/4/solution

Ohm's law gives the mean electric current
For an estimate, assume the shot noise counting model: electron transfers are independent, so the number recorded in an interval has a Poisson distribution with expectation value and variance . One measurement has relative standard deviation . Averaging independent intervals reduces this to , so
about minutes in total.
This is a one-standard deviation, shot noise estimate. A resistance and mean voltage alone do not specify the actual current fluctuations: a real resistor also has Johnson-Nyquist noise, and electron-transfer correlations can change the shot noise. Its temperature, measurement bandwidth and noise model would be needed for an unconditional acquisition time.

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