We explain what an electron is, what its characteristics are and how the discovery of this subatomic particle was.
What is an electron?
An electron is a type of subatomic particle that presents electric charge negative and that actively orbits the atomic nucleus (composed of protons and neutrons), which has a positive electrical charge.
The size of an electron is 1836 times smaller than that of protons (they contribute 0.06% of the total mass of an atom) and, as it does not have substructures or divisions, it is considered an elementary particle of matter.
Electrons play an essential role in certain forces and physical phenomena of nature, such as electricity, magnetism or thermal conductivity, and to a large extent determine atomic bonds, both ionic (loss or gain of electrons) or covalent (of joint use of electrons). Electrons generate electric fields that affect the charged particles around them.
The origin of electrons, according to the most accepted theory regarding the origin of the universe, indicates that were formed during the first milliseconds of the big Bang whose temperatures exceeded 1010 K, sufficient to form pairs of positrons (e+) – electrons (e-) that annihilated each other due to having opposite electrical charges.
For unknown reasons, the number of electrons was much greater than that of protons, so they survived and began to be attracted by the first protons when the universe cooled enough, thus forming the most elementary atoms in nature.
The number of electrons in the atoms of matter determines whether it has a neutral charge (balance between protons and electrons), positive (shortage of electrons) or negative (excess of electrons).
At the same time, There are “free” electrons that can move from one atom to another of matter, generating electric flows or magnetic fields, depending on the temperature at which they are found. There are materials known as driversin which electrons can move freely from atom to atom and thus generate flows of moving atoms, what is known as electric current.
See also: Rutherford atomic model
Characteristics of an electron
Electrons belong to a type of elementary particles called leptons. There are also two other groups of elementary particles called quarks and bosons. For each type of particle there are three families or generations.
The electrons are the leptons with the lowest mass electrical charge of the set, and belong to the first generation of fundamental particles (the second and third generations contain the muon and tau particles).
The mass of an electron is always 9.019 x 10-31 kg and Their respective electric charge is -1.602 x 10-19 coulomb which represents a charge identical to that of the proton, but of the opposite sign. That measurement is known as the elemental charge of nature.
Who discovered the electron?
The electron was discovered at the end of the 19th century, thanks to successive research in the field of electrical conductivity in gases. Using cathode rays, phenomena were observed that led to the conclusion that these rays were negatively charged particles, initially called corpuscles and that had one thousandth of the mass of the hydrogen ion, the least massive of all atoms. The curious thing is that by varying the nature of the gas used, these particles retained all their characteristics.
At the end of the 19th century, The Irishman George Francis Fitzgerald called them “electrons.” a name that enjoyed general acceptance from the beginning. The belonging of these particles to the structure of the atom was postulated around 1900, thanks to the experiments of Rutherford, Moseley, Franck and Hertz, and the atomic model later proposed by Niels Bohr.
