What exactly is an electron - a detailed analysis is needed

[truth_seeker]

stupid question?????!!!!

I have a question ..but whenever i ask about it..people look at me as if i were stupid...my friend told me that i don't know what i'm talking about..and that i should read the books of physics again..i need u to tell me if he is right

the question is...what is the electron??
I know what definition the books give..but it is not persuasive to me..none of those definitions tell what the electron really is..its truth..its nature..core...if u understand me..that it is a subatomic particle is not enough to tell what it is..right????!!!

Is this a stupid question??

 

[vbc]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

I do not think it is a stupid question.
It is clear that you want a less abstract answer, but remember that the concept of electron comes from experiments, the same for positive and negative charges, they were discovered based on experience.

I do not have the enough level to give a less abstract answer. But here you call ask yourself the concept/definition of time and energy too.

 

[the_risk_master]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

It is beyond human logic!!!

 

[Davood Amerion]

stupid question?????!!!!

Dear truth_seeker;
Some of people think to knew anything, but
if we ask a [to seem] simple question they ridicule.
and if we insist, they say [in a best case] some difinitions as written in books!
and if we ask to get more information, they cannot explain and stammered.

 

[flatulent]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

We do not really know. All we have is a mathematical model that fits with measurements of gross activity.

 

[blackdebugger]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

Actually in this nature everything a form, like stone it can be defined as a huge collections of atoms. But what about atoms? it consist of more particles [about hundreds particles have beeen found] The most popular is electron and proton [for electronics maniac]. Electron is a form of energy that has negative value [remember everything in nature is in balance, the energy level is balance] therefore thare is also a proton to get this balance. The electron itself can be defined as duality of particle and wave function. In some case it can be shown that electron behave nature like particle but in another case it bahave nature like wave. Some experiment have shown that it is true.

So what is the relationship between electron in our electronics world. Since the mass of proton >> mass of electron, therefore the moment of electron is smaller than proton. Thus the particle that can move easier is electron. It is why the current is known as flow of electron.

Maybe in my repply there is bunce of mistakes, but please send any critics if im false

 

[irfan1]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

All these questions (to answer and to understand the given answer) require a very deep understanding of quantum mechanics. And not at the level of an undergradute course. To understand the "electron" you really need to have a good grasp of relativistic quantum mechanics. If you further want to learn the interactions between electronic particles and even photons, you will need to know quantum electrodynamics and chromadynamics. I am sorry, but, without these knowledge tools, it is not easy to answer these deeper questions. And there are still an infinite amount of unanswered scientific mysteries out there. As physicists, we do not know everything about microscopic and subatomic world. It is not a bad thing to say "we do not know"...because the lack of knowledge and curiousity is the driving force for scientific studies.

 

[teteamigo]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

Most People like me can only see the behaviour of charge (1 unit of charge =electron).

[Empirical] There is two types of feasable behaviour between any charge:
repulsion or attraction.

Repulsion and atraction were studied [empirical] to give the Coloumb Law.

Negative/Positive charge are at this moment useful representations to explain repulsion or attraction.


There are many effects with great evidences [empirical] static charge, charge transference:

Mechanical: piezoelectricity- an strength applied to a specific material organize the charge, to presents local deffects of charge, breaking the neutrality.

Chemical: battery- two materials by contact may suffer spontaneous redox reaction, then there is lost of electrons to one of the materials. This effect was utilized to make a battery, like in other sciences discovered in a odd situation by Volta.

Electric: when we approach our arm (with some hair) to a monitor television (with some dust) we see a small lightning.

Photoelectric: if the radiation that interacts with charge (valence band) have sufficient energy, then is capable of pull-up the negative charge to outside action of nucleous.


We can see many practical evidences of existence of charge, at different situations.

At microscopic level, the knowledge there isn't so popular.

 

[RollingEEE]

stupid question?????!!!!

The question is stupid if you term it, but the answer is really very difficult to give. There are also other questions equally 'stupid' that we don't have any answer, as for example, what is 'time', what is energy . . . . . .
But the good thing is that, you don't need to know everything.

 

[zainmirza]

stupid question?????!!!!

it isnt stupid..but it is very difficult to answer this..

 

[PaulHolland]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

Hi, No stupid question at all.

OK. We don't know. All we know is based on models developed in the 1920-1930's and the models seem to fit all our observations and test. What we know now: Its NOT a solid object as most of you may think, we now its more like a cloude of some energy.

If you think its a ball (like football) of energy your incorrect since we know its not !.

With the current understanding we can explain all but this does not mean that our model is correct. It only means we have made a model that is telling the story very well.

regards,

Paul.

 

[neils_arm_strong]

stupid question?????!!!!

It is a difficult questio toanswer and requires an in depth knowledge of quantum physics.I too just cannot digest the duality propery of electron.

 

[Learner]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

Here are some relevent info

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/lepton.html#c2

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/parcon.html#c1

 

[sidra]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

well yr not the first one who has asked the question...i also used to ask the same question from my teachers...well..as much as i know...scientists are just able to discover that the electron is the basic partical of an atom with very little mass...y i said very little mass because it is very difficult to say if electron is mass or congested energy...

 

[PaulHolland]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

Hi sidra,

I don't think your correct. We KNOW already its not solid but more like a cloud of energy that is changing shape all the time. We can even see them already ...

regards,

Paul.

Added after 2 minutes:

Hi for all those who do not know yet !.

**broken link removed**

regards,

Paul.

 

[treehugger]

Re: stupid question?????!!!!

it's energy with a charge.