Weighing a Bacterium Scientists are using tiny, nanoscale cantilevers 4 micrometers long and 500 nanometers wide--essentially miniature diving boards--as a sensitive way to measure mass. An example is shown in (Figure 1). The cantilevers oscillate up and down with a frequency that depends on the mass placed near the tip, and a laser beam is used to measure the frequency. A single E. coli bacterium was measured to have a mass of 690 femtograms = 6.9010¹⁶ kg with this device, as the cantilever oscillated with a frequency of 16.9 MHz.

Part A

Treating the cantilever as an ideal, massless spring, find its effective force constant.

Express your answer in newtons per meter.

k=_______N/m