Naked Universe of Ana
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What is an electron-volt, and why do we need it?
🕑 Added 2025-01-26 18:42:18 +0000 UTCAn electron-volt is a unit of energy. But don’t think it’s some kind of super-powerful thing. It’s actually the smallest and most humble unit of energy physicists use because in the microscopic world, big numbers just make your brain hurt.
How does an electron-volt work?
Imagine you have a 1-volt battery. If an electron (a tiny and speedy guy) zips through the electric field of this battery, it gains an energy of 1 electron-volt. It’s like giving the electron a tiny kick and watching it speed off, thinking it’s the fastest thing in the universe.
How powerful is it, really?
Well… let’s just say:
That’s like asking an ant to pull a truck. The ant might try, but let’s face it: it’s not making a dent.
To lift a glass of water 1 meter high, you’d need about 10²⁰ eV. That’s like recruiting 100 billion billion electrons to team up and lift that glass. Teamwork makes the dream work😁
Why do physicists love electron-volts so much?🤤
In the atomic world, everything is tiny: electrons, nuclei, energies - everything except the physicists’ ambitions💅. If they used joules(I hope you know it, sometimes they write it on your chips pack) they’d be stuck writing numbers with a hundred zeros. But with electron-volts, it’s simple:
The energy of an electron in an atom? A few eV.
X-rays? Thousands of eV (kiloelectron-volts, keV).
Particles in an accelerator? Millions or billions of eV (MeV, GeV).
Cosmic rays? Trillions of eV (TeV).
Comments
Ana
This meaning too, yes😁😁
Florin
This means we have to eat 🐷:)? Nice description Ana!
John
I can accept that! 👍🏾
Ana
A human spends 300-500 calories per hour during walk. 1 calorie= 4.18 kJ. 500*4.18 ≈2000 kJ = 2 * 10³ J 1 eV= 1.6*10^(-19) J Then if we want to know energy in eV, we should divide 2000 J on 1.6 *10^(-19) So we have around 10²⁵ eV I'm cosmic rays particle😌 Even extra galactic particle I think
John
…and how many electron volts get you going? 🤔 Must be a lot to make you so beautiful! 😍🌹
