Why must electrons all have the same amount of charge? Is it possible for 2 to differing amounts? Thomo
Electrons are elementary particles and their charge is one of their properties, so their charge cannot be changed and is always the same. All the electrons are indistinguishable from eachother.
I've wondered about a related question: Is an electron's spin magnetic moment or spin angular momentum always measured to be the same quantized values even when the electron has attained a relativistic speed? Said another way, are these properties constant even tho the electron suffers time dialation? Thanx
By what miracle does every "proton", "electron", "neutron", have exactly the same mass and the same "electric charge", whereas no two things are ever exactly the same in the universe?
I like fo3, but do not think he said anything other than to restate the fact that all electrons are the same. (Nothing was "explained") Dirac did once offer an explanation, but it is "far fetched" MHO and not easy to follow. In a nut shell his answer is that there is only one electron in the whole universe! It works roughly this way: The equations of physics remain the same if both time and charge have their signs changed. Thus a positron moving backwards in time (from the future to the past) is the same as an electron traveling into the future. If there is some high energy event in the future which generates an positron that does travel backwards in time, it looks like an electron to us traveling into the future. Well back in the past this positron from the future gets involved in another high energy event, a scattering of some sort, which again reverses its charge and send it forward in time -- Woops there it went by me again. ---So now we have three electrons in the present that are really all the same object. (Recall that positron headed into the past is indistinguishable from an electron evolving into the future. I.e. one electron plus two scattering events, one in the past and one in the future add up to three electrons for us now.) You get the idea. All that we now see are that single electron -- the one being batted back and forth between the future and the past. I admit the idea is strange, but it is the best "explanation" we got that I know of, other than to do as fo3 did disguise our ignorance and say that charge is a fundamental property of electrons and can't be changed (rule of fo3?) I personally think there are two electrons of same charge, but significantly different mass. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! We call one the 'electron muon" if memory is not failing me - anyway it is that negatively charged (by one charge unit) particle which differs from the electron only in its mass. Probably the big bang made a lot of "high energy events" once things had cooled down enough, but now it is the "intelligent life forms" and their high energy physics experiments throughout the universe that have been providing "high energy scattering events" in the more recent past. God only knows what is going on inthe future to bat all those positrons back to the past!!! I hate to think about that, but assume I am too old to care. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! That is why the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate - more electrons etc. to fit in! "Dark Energy" Ha Ha ha... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! LoL
Hi Billy, I have heard that explanation too, but my understanding is that there are too few positrons around to explain it that way. In other words, each time you use that trick to turn one electron into two you get a positron that exists the entire time you have two electrons. We just don't observe that many positrons around. I think the mass and charge of the particles are derived naturally by some of the string/quantum theories, but it is definitely way beyond my area of expertise. And I also understand that, at least for the string theories, there is not much in the way of testable predictions that really distinguish them from each other and other more standard theories (again, not my area of expertise). -Dale
Yes, I know, but it is possible that whatever is going on in the future is only batting positons back at the past. Those future guys are "selective hitters." Perhaps some other "anti-matter universe" is begining to collide with ours and it is the only thing they can do to get ride of the anti-matter enchroching on them? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think you are thinking of snowflakes. Don't trust to common sense when you are dealing with the quantum world. It is usually wrong. -Dale
You're right, but atleast I answered his second question Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
"You're right, but at least I answered his second question " Yes. you did fo3 I said thank you but nothing else as I was struggling with a way to better word my question. If an electron is the minimum amount of charge a particle can have what determines the minimum amount and stops it from having an electron from having two of those charges.
Actually the charge of electron is not the minimum charge possible, although it is called the elementary charge. Quarks (elementary particles that make up neutrons and protons, for example) have charges of e/3 or 2e/3, where e is the electrons charge. About what determines the charge of an electron, I can only say that it is one of the physical constants (like the speed of light and the gravitational constant etc) and is determined by the nature. One of the possible explanations for this is, that if the electron had a slightly different charge (even by 1%) the world we see today would be completely different, possibly even the atoms wouldn't be stable. So if the charge was different from its current value, there wouldn't be us observing it.
I guess I have to disagree. I have studied quantum physics in several university and graduate classes, and it seems pretty weird to me - even if it is a very thoroughly tested theory.
Atoms behave just like planets, we are just unable to observe them because they're too small, there is no physical existence in the presence (the metaphysical field of causes) The reason particles seem to behave "illogically", being at several places at the same time, moving in time as easily as in space, communicating without delay, is because the physicists are trying to observe the "mind", which behaves just like this. Physicists are obliged to invent even more complicated equations to introduce what is not physical into a physical field.
Do you care to explain yourself? In what way do you say that atoms behave like planets? If you have in mind that the electrom orbits around the nucleus like a planet orbits around the sun, then your model needs updating. An electron is described as a fuzzy existence around the nucleus and not a planet-like sphere in orbit.
And how would you use this model to explain the quantized energy levels that electrons around an atom exhibit?
