Free Electron Motions
Most recent answer: 03/05/2013
Q:
Say you have a free electron in a vacuum and you let that electron move for 1 picometre. And you where to zoom in and take a picture for every time it moved a little bit, what would you see? Would you see the electron changing into an oval shape to move a little or would you see the electron teleporting to move a little OR something completly else?
(more basic question: what is movement on it's most fundamental level instead of energy coming in and moving the particle)
- Frank van Neerbos (age 18)
Netherlands
- Frank van Neerbos (age 18)
Netherlands
A:
What happens really depends on what the electron starting state is and how long you wait. If you're interested in picometer movements, I guess you're thinking about an electron whose position is defined to about a picometer or less. That small a wave lump requires a big spread in momenta. In fact, the spread in velocities would only be a bit less than the speed of light. So in a nanosecond it would spread out by centimeters in every direction.
If you then shined some bright light on it to try to see where it was, you'd get a new starting wavefunction confined to some micron-size region somewhere in there. Any picometer shifts wouldn't amount to much against that background spread.
Mike W.
If you then shined some bright light on it to try to see where it was, you'd get a new starting wavefunction confined to some micron-size region somewhere in there. Any picometer shifts wouldn't amount to much against that background spread.
Mike W.
(published on 03/05/2013)