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Sunday 28 December 2014

Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle. It is believed to be an elementary particle because it cannot be broken down into anything smaller.

English physicist J.J. Thomson  of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge was the first to suggest that one of the fundamental units was much much smaller than an atom, suggesting the subatomic particle now known as the electron. Thomson discovered this through his explorations on the properties of cathode rays, showing they were composed of previously unknown negatively charged particles. He announced his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton (in the atomic nucleus), at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London on April 30, 1897.

J.J. Thomson won the Nobel in Physics in 1906 when he showed electrons were particles. His son G. P. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1937 for showing that electrons are waves.

A beam of electrons deflected in a circle by a magnetic field. By Marcin BiaƂek - Wikipedia

The one-electron universe postulate was proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940. Its hypothesis is that there is only one electron in existence that is constantly moving throughout time.

The ratio of electrons to protons in the universe is one to the power of 37 (1 with 37 zeros after it). If it varied from this incredibly sensitive balance, no galaxies, stars or planets would be able to form.

Electricity consists of many electrons moving through wires or other conductors.



Electrons flow through a typical copper wire much slower than a turtle walks.

The Bureau of Standards says that the electron is the fastest thing in the world.

The development of the light bulb introduced the "Edison Effect", a metal heated until red hot emits an electron cloud. Later on radio tubes would make use of this effect.

That hiss you hear when you turn your headphone volume all the way up is the sound of electrons traveling along copper wires.

A full 4GB Kindle, stocked with 3,500 books, weighs 0.00000000000000001g more than empty one - because of the energy created in storing data in electrons within the device as content is added.

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