The electron is the famous subatomic particle that is known to most of us. He is the hero in many disciplines of Science, especially in Physics. To understand how these electrons live, we must go to their scale. Quantum mechanics takes us from our macroscopic world to the microscopic world.
Let us see where an electron lives? Electron lives inside an atom, in fact, electrons along with neutrons and protons build an atom, thereby a molecule, cluster of which results as matter. Although they are so tiny, their movement induces an electric current.
Electrons are characterised by its mass, charge, spin etc. Mass tells how heavy the electron is. Charge speaks about polarity; that is negative. Spin is another intrinsic property. The spin of an electron is well explained through the Dirac equation.
Electron walks around the nucleus all the time along the definite orbits. The number of electrons residing in an atom varies from atom to atom. They jump from one orbit to another. Not just for fun but at a cost. When an electron jump from higher orbit to lower, it emits energy and when an electron jumps from a lower orbit to higher it absorbs energy.
When the atoms full of electrons subjected to macroscopic entities like temperature, pressure their configuration changes. When they collide they even shift their paths, they exchange their energies, momentum, direction etc. Their behaviour in the presence of magnetic fields and electric fields along with other parameters is explained by Maxwell relations.
Electrons are bit mysterious too. One electron can exists simultaneously at two different places at the same time. If you know their exact momentum, you will lose all the information about their position and vice versa. This is well explained by Werner Karl Heisenberg in his Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
To conclude, Electrons are the building blocks of everything around us; from the object next to you to the infinite universe. Understanding them and their complex characteristic is hard. Scientists across the globe work every day to know them better.
To learn more on such physics concept, you can follow the video link given below and also subscribe to BYJU’S YouTube Channel to watch interactive videos with 3D animations and in-air productions.
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