Definition:Electron
Electron
An electron is an elementary particle which contains a single unit of negative elementary electric charge.
Charge
The electric charge on the electron is $-1.60217 \, 6634 \times 10^{−19}$ coulombs.
That is, a negative charge whose magnitude is the value of the elementary charge.
Mass
The mass of the electron is given as:
\(\ds m_\E\) | \(\approx\) | \(\ds 9 \cdotp 10938 \, 37015 \, (28) \times 10^{-31}\) | kilograms | \(\quad\) This sequence is A081801 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (N. J. A. Sloane (Ed.), 2008). | ||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(\approx\) | \(\ds 9 \cdotp 10938 \, 37015 \, (28) \times 10^{-28}\) | grams | \(\quad\) This sequence is A081801 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (N. J. A. Sloane (Ed.), 2008). | ||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(\approx\) | \(\ds 5 \cdotp 48579 \, 90906 \, 5(16) \times 10^{-4}\) | daltons | \(\quad\) This sequence is A003672 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (N. J. A. Sloane (Ed.), 2008). |
Radius
The actual size of the electron is still unknown.
The current best estimate is that its radius has an upper limit of the order of $10^{-22}$ metres.
Also see
- Results about electrons can be found here.
Historical Note
The electron was discovered by Joseph John Thomson, who measured the Electron Charge to Mass Ratio in $1897$.
This happened as a result of several decades of work by many scientists.
Linguistic Note
The adjectival form of the word electron is electronic.
Hence the word electronics as a collective term for devices exploiting the behaviour of electrons
Sources
- 1958: C.A. Coulson: Electricity (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {I}$: Preliminary Survey: $\S 1$. Electrostatics
- 1978: A.P. French and Edwin F. Taylor: An Introduction to Quantum Physics ... (previous) ... (next): $1$: Simple models of the atom: $\text {1-3}$: The Electrical Structure of Matter
- 1990: I.S. Grant and W.R. Phillips: Electromagnetism (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $1$: Force and energy in electrostatics: $1.1$ Electric Charge