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--------------------------------- 2373 - What is an Electron?
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- The electron is the reason I majored in Electrical Engineering is college. It was seen as ubiquitous and responsible for almost all of engineering from chemistry to aeronautics. If you understand an electron and how it is used you could get a job almost anywhere.
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- The interaction of electrons between atoms is the fundamental concept of all Chemistry. As more and more electrons are added to an atom we can make up all the elements in the Periodic Table. Interacting electrons between atoms produce all the molecules studied in Chemistry.
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- If you add to the is electron interactions in proteins and deoxyribonucleic acids, you have the entire field of Biology. Obviously, we understand the behavior of an electron very well.
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- However, what is an electron? There is still a lot of mystery here. We know that the electron is a sub-atomic particle that has a mass of 9*10^-31 kilograms. This mass expressed in the form of energy equates to 0.5 million electron-volts. This weight is one million millionth (10^-12) the mass of a speck of dust.
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- We know that the electron carries a negative electric charge of 1.6*10_19 coulombs. Using the average density of the Universe, we can estimate there are 10^79 electrons and an equal number of protons, because the Universe is electrically neutral.
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-------------------------------- Electron Mass = 9.1093897 * 10^-31 kilograms
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-------------------------------- Electron Energy = 0.510034 * 10^6 electron-Volts.
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-------------------------------- Electron’s charge = - 1.60218925 coulombs.
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- The coulomb is a unit of electrical force. Like charges repel and opposite charges attract. The force of repulsion or attraction is proportional to the product of their charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This formula is very similar to the equation for the Force of Gravity. Except, it is the product of masses measured in kilograms instead of charges measured in coulombs. The electric force is enormously stronger than the gravitational force, 10^39 times stronger.
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- An electron can have a left-handed or right-handed spin. Left-handed spin means if the electron is traveling away from you, point the thumb of your left hand in that direction and your fingers wrap counterclockwise, which is the direction of rotation for a left-handed spin.
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- Electron spin is its intrinsic angular momentum and is equal to Planck’s constant/2.
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- This all seems very precise so far, but, what about the size of an electron? All attempts to measure the diameter of the electron have failed. The best we can determine is that the diameter is less than 10^-18 meters. The diameter of the atom is 10^-10 meters, so, the electron is at least 100 million times smaller than that of the atom.
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- As far as we know the electron is a point like particle that has no structure. So, how can particle have no size and no structure, yet have a definite mass and behave as though it is spinning?
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- If you try to confine an electron it will begin behaving like a wave. This property is used in the electron microscope. The wavelengths of electrons are much shorter than the wavelengths of light so they can “see” much smaller things.
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- The electron orbits the nucleus of atoms in a cloud. It is a waveform circling the nucleus in shells. The electron’s orbit can only exist in orbits of such size that the waveform occupies it a whole number of wavelengths. When this happens, the waveform repeats itself as it goes around, falling exactly on itself. In this way the electron is a stable standing wave.
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- The electron must gain or lose just enough quantum energy to decrease or increase its wavelength to the point where an integral number of wavelengths can again fit into the orbit. This in effect creates different energy levels representing different standing waves.
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- When electrons interact between atoms they form resonance’s that define the structure and behavior the molecule that is formed. Interacting electron clouds, or shells, gets into the whole field of Chemistry. But, we want to go the other direction into sub-atomic particles.
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- The electron has a twin in anti-matter. The “positron” is exactly like the electron except it has a positive electric charge. If an electron and a positron come together they annihilate each other, evaporating their mass into pure energy according to E = mc^2.
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- If you heat up an electron, giving it more energy, it will turn into a “Muon” as soon as the energy reaches 105,660,000 electron-volts. The Muon is another one of the twelve fundamental particles.(3)
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- The Muon appears to be a duplicate of the electron except for its change in mass and energy which is 207 times heavier than the electron. The average lifetime of a Muon is 2.2 microseconds (2.2*10^-6 seconds).
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- If you heat up a Muon giving it even more energy so that you reach 1,786,000,000 electron-Volts it turns into a “Tau” particle. The Tau is a third of the twelve fundamental particles that make up our Universe. The average lifetime of a Tau is 0.02551 microseconds (2.551*10^-8). The Tau is 3,560 times heavier than the electron.
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- The Muon was discovered in 1936 by Carl Anderson and was first called a mu-meson. Muons rain down on us from Cosmic rays that collide with gas atoms in our upper atmosphere. Cosmic rays are high energy protons and nuclei originating in violent explosions of stars and making there way through space to our Solar System.(4)
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- Cosmic rays with energy levels of 10^20 electron-Volts are traveling near the speed of light when they collide with nuclei of atoms in the atmosphere. These proton to proton collisions create many sub-atomic particles, including the Muons and Tau particles.
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- The collision starts a chain reaction in the upper atmosphere with the Taus created having an average lifetime of .025 microseconds before decaying into Muons and the Muons decaying into electrons in 2.2 microseconds. Multiple collisions occur and many sub-atomic particles are created.
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- Since Muons are created at the top of the atmosphere, at a height of 10,000 meters (10 Kilometers ), how can they reach the surface of Earth in 2.2 microseconds?
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- Assume they are traveling near the speed of light, then 3 * 10^8 meters per second times 2.2 * 10-6 seconds is only 660 meters. We would not expect them to reach the surface but somehow they do and in intense fluxes as well. So, what is happening?
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- The Theory of Relativity and Time Dilation provide the explanation:
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----------- Observed Time squared = Actual Time squared / Lorentz factor squared
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-------------------------- Lorentz factor^2 = ( 1- Velocity^2 / Speed of Light^2 )
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-------------------------- Lorentz factor^2 = ( 1- .998^2 )
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-------------------------- Since the Muon is traveling 99.8% the speed of light.
-------------------------- Observed Time^2 = 2.2 * 10^-6 seconds^2 / ( 0.003996)
-------------------------- Observed Time^2 = 1211 * 10^-12
-------------------------- Observed Time = 34.8 microseconds
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- Since Time Dilation has made the Observed Time slow down to 34.8 microseconds the Muon can travel more than 10 kilometers and easily reach the surface of Earth in its new lifetime.
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- Other Reviews available upon Request:
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- 2232 - What is the shape of an electron? As far as physicists currently know, electrons have no internal structure and thus no shape in the classical meaning of this word. In the modern language of particle physics the fundamental blocks of matter are continuous fluid-like substances known as “quantum fields” that permeate the whole space around us.
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- 1652 - Electrons are all around us.
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- 1255 - What have we learned about the electron?
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- 1226 - Why are there three generations of electrons?
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- 730 - Antimatter
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- 731 - The electron
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- 507 - What is an electron and the Lorentz /Factor.
- (3) - 56 - The Universe of Fundamental Particles
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- (4) - 26 - Gamma rays and Cosmic rays
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- May 20, 2019. 57
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--------------------- Monday, May 20, 2019 -------------------------
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