structure for 'Natural Reality'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     unexpand these ideas

27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / c. Electrons

[particle constituting the shells of atoms]

10 ideas
Dirac showed how electrons conform to special relativity [Close]
     Full Idea: In 1928 Paul Dirac discovered the quantum equation that describes the electron and conforms to the requirements special relativity theory.
     From: Frank Close (Theories of Everything [2017], 3 'Light!')
     A reaction: This sounds like a major step in the unification of physics. Quantum theory and General relativity remain irreconcilable.
Electrons get their mass by interaction with the Higgs field [Close]
     Full Idea: The electron gets its mass by interaction with the ubiquitous Higgs field.
     From: Frank Close (Theories of Everything [2017], 6 'Hierarchy')
     A reaction: I thought I understood mass until I read this. Is it just wrong to say the mass of a table is the 'amount of stuff' in it?
Electrons are treated as particles, but they lose their individuality in relations [Heil]
     Full Idea: Although it is convenient to speak of electrons as particles or elementary substances, when they enter into relations they can 'lose their individuality. Then an electron becomes a kind of 'abstract particular', a way a given system is, a mode.
     From: John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 03.7)
     A reaction: Heil rightly warns us against basing our metaphysics on disputed theories of quantum mechanics.
Electrons rotate in hyrogen atoms 10^13 times per second [Watson]
     Full Idea: In the hydrogen atom the electron rotates some 10,000 billion times per second.
     From: Peter Watson (Convergence [2016], 18 'Evolutionary')
     A reaction: That's an awful lot. Is it at the speed of light?
Many physicists believe particles have further structure, if only we could see it [Martin,BR]
     Full Idea: Although standard particles are assumed to be structureless, many physicists believe that if distances could be probed down to 10^-35 m structures would be discovered.
     From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01)
     A reaction: Such probing is said to be probably impossible. And does the division then come to a halt? Aristotle's meditations on this are not irrelevant.
Electrons move fast, so are subject to special relativity [New Sci.]
     Full Idea: Electrons in atoms move at high speeds, so they are subject to the special theory of relativity.
     From: New Scientist writers (Why the Universe Exists [2017], 02)
     A reaction: Presumably this implies a frame of reference, and defining velocities relative to other electrons. Plus time-dilation?
Electrons only exist when they interact, and their being is their combination of quantum leaps [Rovelli]
     Full Idea: Electrons don't always exist. They exist when they interact. They materialize when they collide with something. The quantum leap from one orbit to another constitutes their way of being real. An electron is a combination of leaps between interactions.
     From: Carlo Rovelli (Reality is Not What it Seems [2014], 04)
     A reaction: If a philosopher with an Aristotelian interest in the nature of matter wants to grasp the modern view, the electron looks like the thing to focus on. You can feel Rovelli battling here to find formulations that might satisfy a philosopher.
Electrons are not waves, because their collisions are at a point, and not spread out [Rovelli]
     Full Idea: Schrödinger's wave is a bad image for an electron, because when a particle collides with something else, it is always at a point: it is never spread out in space like a wave.
     From: Carlo Rovelli (Reality is Not What it Seems [2014], 04 note)
     A reaction: And yet there is the diffusion in the two-slit experiment, which Thomas Young discovered for light. I must take Rovelli's word for this.
Electrons are fundamental and are not made of anything; they are properties without size [Hesketh]
     Full Idea: As far as we can tell, electrons (and quarks) are fundamental. They are not small lumps of material, because we could always ask what the material is. The electron just ...is. They are collections of properties, with no apparent size.
     From: Gavin Hesketh (The Particle Zoo [2016], 01)
     A reaction: This idea from physics HAS to be of interest to philosophers! The bundle theory is discredited for normal objects and for minds, and so is the substrate idea for supporting properties. But rigorous physics accepts a bundle theory.
Electrons may have smaller components, bound by a new force [Hesketh]
     Full Idea: Quarks, leptons or bosons may actually be made up of something even smaller, bound together by a conjectural new force.
     From: Gavin Hesketh (The Particle Zoo [2016], 05)
     A reaction: Electrons are a type of lepton. Compare Idea 21180, from the same book. If electrons are not fundamental, what matters is not some 'stuff' they are made of, but a different force that would bind the ingredients.