To be precise, the electron differs from being perfectly round by less than 0.000000000000000000000000001 cm. To put that in context; if an electron was the size of the solar system, it would be out from being perfectly round by less than the width of a human hair.
The Imperial College team behind the research, which was conducted on molecules of ytterbium flouride, used a laser to make measurements of the motion of electrons, and in particular the wobble they exhibit when spinning. They observed no such wobble, implying that the electron is perfectly round at the levels of precision available, reflected in the figure above.
The co-author of the report describing the research, Jony Hudson, said: “We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to improve our knowledge of one of the basic building blocks of matter. It’s been a very difficult measurement to make, but this knowledge will let us improve our theories of fundamental physics. People are often surprised to hear that our theories of physics aren’t ‘finished’, but in truth they get constantly refined and improved by making ever more accurate measurements like this one.”
Read more at Wired Science
I've always been lead to believe that an electron is a probability field (from the Schroedinger equation) and doesn't exist as a single point of mass at any one place in the atom. This seems odd to me that they can determine the roundness of a non particle.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they have done it exactly but I'm sure that they know how to do it! :)
ReplyDeleteActually, the research found that the electron IS round as far as we can measure it. This is news because non-round electrons may explain the matter-antimatter imbalance.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a copy of a poorly written summary (Wired Science) of a report (Science Daily) of an actual journal article (Nature). This is the telephone game in practice.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110525131707.htm
An electron, due to the size, follows wave-particle duality. Technically, an electron does have mass and size, like a particle, but it's so small that it has a significant probability field.
ReplyDeletewow.
ReplyDeleteinfinitely small................yet HUGE! @_0
ReplyDelete