Concept
Electron
Overview
The electron (e−, or β− in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle whose electric charge is negative one elementary charge. It is an elementary particle contained in the matter that makes up the universe.
All atoms are composed of electrons, as well as varying numbers protons and neutrons, but the electrons have almost 2000 times less mass than the other two constituents. In atoms, an electron's matter wave occupies atomic orbitals around a positively charged atomic nucleus. The configuration and energy levels of an atom's electrons determine the atom's chemical properties. Electrons are bound to the nucleus to different degrees. The outermost or valence electrons are the least tightly bound and are responsible for the formation of chemical bonds between atoms to create molecules and crystals. These valence electrons also facilitate all types of chemical reactions by being transferred or shared between atoms. The inner electron shells make up the atomic core.
The concept of electrons explains numerous physical phenomena. In metals, the outermost electrons are delocalised and able to move freely, accounting for the high electrical and thermal conductivity of metals. In semiconductors, the number of mobile charge carriers (electrons and holes) can be finely tuned by doping, temperature, voltage and radiation – the basis of modern electronics.
Electrons can exist as free particles. As particle beams in a vacuum, free electrons can be accelerated, focused, and used for applications such as cathode ray tubes, electron microscopes, electron beam welding, lithography, and particle accelerators that generate synchrotron radiation.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Electron is discussed.
A scientific object such as a definite electron is a systematic correlation of the characters of all events throughout all nature. It is an aspect of the systematic character of nature. The electron is not merely where its charge is. The charge is the quantitative character of certain events due to the ingression of the electron into nature. The electron is its whole field of force.
Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph
So long as the electron does not change its orbit, the atom does not radiate energy, but when the electron jumps to a smaller orbit, the atom loses energy, which is radiated out in the form of a light-wave. This light-wave is always such that its energy divided by its frequency is exactly _h_. The atom may absorb energy from without, and it does so by the electron jumping to a larger orbit.
Bertrand Russell, Philosophy
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Let us now consider the action of the field due to the positive electrons upon the negative electrons (or inversely); it will still follow the same laws, but _with a different coefficient_. Each electron is more sensitive to the field created by the electrons of contrary name than to the field created by the electrons of the same name. Such is the hypothesis of Lorentz, which reduces to Franklin's hypothesis for…
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Let us now determine the kinetic energy of the electron. If the electron moves from the origin of co-ordinates of the system K with the initial velocity 0 steadily along the X-axis under the action of an electromotive force X, then it is clear that the energy drawn from the electrostatic field has the value ∫_e_X_dx_. Since the electron is only slowly accelerated, and in consequence, no energy is given out in the…
Albert Einstein, The Principle of Relativity
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
The fields of a group of electrons are superposed according to the linear law for aggregation, namely, pure addition for analogous scalar quantities and the parallelogram law for analogous vectors. The changes in motion of each electron depend entirely on the resultant field in the region it occupies. Thus a field can be viewed as a possibility of action, but a possibility which represents an actuality. It is to be…
Alfred North Whitehead, The organisation of thought, educational and scientific
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Electron
- Periodic table
- Alfred North Whitehead
- Hans Vaihinger
- Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
- Philip Goff (philosopher)
- Peter Achinstein
Related ideas
- Fundamental interaction
- Elementary particle
- World Scientific
- Springer Science+Business Media
- Ancient Greek
- Classical physics
- Integrated circuit
- William Gilbert (physicist)
- Light
- Molecule
- Maxwell's equations
- Atomic nucleus
- Atmosphere
- Momentum
- Niels Bohr
- Subatomic particle
- Physics
- Particle physics
- Photon
- Quark
- Quantum mechanics
- Quantum field theory
- Special relativity
- Scientific American
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Anti-realism.