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--------------------- - 1652 - Electrons are all around us.
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- Everyone knows electrons. They turn on the lights, run the dishwasher, heat your blanket, play your radio,………………. Electrons are those negative particles that circle the positive nucleus of every atom to make the atom neutral. Neutral atoms are good for your health. Each of the 92 natural elements have a different set of electrons in orbit around their nucleus. Hydrogen has 1, helium has 2,,,…… oxygen has 8,,,……. gold has 79,,, …….uranium has 92 electrons to match the 92 protons in the nucleus.
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-. When electrons are alone, away from their protons with positive charge, their negative electric charge creates it own electric field. Whenever an electric field is in motion it creates a magnetic field. Or, vice versa, whenever a magnetic field is in motion it creates an electric field. That is how electric generators and electric motors work. It is also how light works.
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-. When it electrons fall to lower energy levels they create electromagnetic radiation called “light“, part of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation that stretches from radio waves to Gamma Rays. This review just says “ light” to represent the whole lot. The different frequencies of light are the different “colors“. Frequencies are another name for oscillations measured in cycles per second.
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- When electrons jump or fall to lower energy levels they emit light. Whenever they jump to higher energy levels they absorb light. All the colors you see are a result of these two processes going on , emissions and absorptions. All the elements described above have different energy levels for orbiting electrons and therefore emit or absorb different colors of light. In the broader sense, different frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. E = h*f.
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- Spectroscopy is running light through a prism which spreads out the colors making emission lines and absorption lines visible as dark or bright lines in the spread out spectrum.
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-------------------------------. Red light has a wavelength of 700 nanometers
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-.-------------------------- That is a frequency of 429,000,000,000,000 oscillations per second.
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-.--------------------------- It is it is an energy level of 0.356 electron volts. E=h*f.
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-.-------------------------- Ultraviolet light has a wavelength of 100 nanometers. Shorter wavelengths mean higher energy. E=h*f. ………. Frequency is the inverse of wavelength,…………. c = w*f………….. f = c/w
-.--------------------------------- Ultraviolet has a frequency of 3,000,000,000,000,000 meters per second.
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-.----------------------------------- Ultraviolet has energy of 2.49 electron volts, enough energy to burn your skin.
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-.---------------------------------- Energy = 4.136*10^-15 * frequency
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-.---------------------------------- E = h*f
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-. The constant, “h”, = 4.136 *10^-15 is Planck's Constant of Action measured in electron-volts.
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- When an electron gets an energy level that is 207 times greater it changes into another fundamental particle. It becomes a Muon. A Muon has a mass of 105,600,000 electron volts.
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-.------------------------------- 105.6 MeV / c^2
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-. We say mass in electron volts from E = mc^2, or, m = E/c^2 , but, the c^2 in the denominator, the speed of light squared, is assumed and not usually mention.
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-. The Muons do not live very long, only 2.2 microseconds, before they decay back to electrons. For electrons to gain enough energy it occurs in particle accelerators or by cosmic rays hitting the gas in the upper atmosphere.
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- Muons were discovered in 1936 by Carl Anderson who was studying cosmic rays. Cosmic Rays are high-energy particles from outer space, usually protons, traveling at near light speed, smashing into the gas atoms in the upper atmosphere. They give the electrons “impact energy” to create the Muons.
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- These Muons descend towards Earth near the speed of light, 670,000,000 miles per hour. Because the Theory of Relativity laws require that we slow time down as velocities near the speed of light, the 2.2 microsecond lifetime for the Muon slows to several seconds, time enough for the Muon to travel the distance to the surface of the Earth. This allowed Carl Anderson to study them in cloud chamber jars. This is how they were discovered to be negatively charged high-energy electrons traveling at near light speed.
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-. When Muons pass through the magnetic fields installed around the cloud chamber jars, their paths curve like charged particles. The paths curve one way for negative electrons and the opposite way for positive protons. The amount of the curvature told scientists that the mass of the Muon was intermediate between electron energy and a proton. Muons were 207 times the mass of electron, 511,000 electron volts. Protons were 1,836 times electron mass. 939,000,000 electron volts
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-. Stranger still, if you give a Muon even more energy it changes into a Tau Lepton that is 1,777,000,000 electron volts, but, it decays in only 3*10^-13 seconds.
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- Electrons can exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behavior. The electric fields that they create determine the chemical properties of all elements in the Periodic Table.
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-. The anti-particle of the electron is called the “positron”. It is the same except the anti-electron carries a positive charge not negative charge.
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-.------------------- The negative charge of electron is -1.6 *10^-19 coulombs.
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-. ------------------ The mass is 9.11*10^ -31 kilograms, which is equivalent to 511,000 electron volts / c^2, which is 1/1836 the mass of the proton.
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-. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle defines electrons position as something that cannot be known simultaneously as its momentum. The momentum can be simplified to velocity since we know the mass and momentum is equal to mass * velocity. p = m*v
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-. The electron has a spin of 1/2 which makes it a Fermion , by definition. It is described as point like, with no spatial extensions. In contradiction to being wave-like it has a classical diameter of 2.8179 *10^-15 meters. This diameter is an outdated concept.
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- The Exclusion Principle is a law in physics which states that no two electrons can occupy the same energy state in an atom. When there are two electrons in the lowest energy level of atom in order to have different energy states one is spinning “up” and the other is “spin down“. One is spinning clockwise in the other counterclockwise.
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-. Somehow the two electrons always know each other's energy state. If one switches from “spin up” to “spin down” the other instantaneously switches from “down spin” to “up spin“. They are somehow “entangled“.
-. Not so mysterious to be “entangled” inside a single atom. But, the mystery continues if you separate the two entangled electrons. No matter how far you separate them. Put one on the Moon, switch it from spin up to spin down, the other here on Earth will instantaneously switch from spin down to spin up. Somehow entangled particles communicate instantaneously. It takes light 2 ½ seconds to travel from the Moon to Earth. How can something travel faster than the speed of light?
-. There a lot of electrons in the universe. If you take time to count them there are 10^79 electrons. This amounts to a density in the universe of one electron per cubic meter.
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-.-------------- In quantum mechanics the electron is described by the Dirac Equation.
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-.-------------- In quantum electrodynamics, QED, the electron lives in a sea of virtual particles that pop in and out of existence.
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-. In String Theory the electron is still a mystery. In QED predictions always work, so far. In String Theory not so much , so far.
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-. When an electron and an anti-electron, a positron, meet they annihilate each other creating 2 Gamma-Ray photons, each having 511,000 electron volts of energy. Vice a versa, is occurring at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Gamma-Rays are creating electrons and positrons. Astronomers have detected the positrons and they are having a hard time explaining the creation of this antimatter. If you have some good ideas let us know. The electron is so familiar and so mysterious at the same time. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
--- Some reviews are at: -------------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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---- www.twitter.com , --- 707-536-3272 ---- Tuesday, February 25, 2014 ---
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