Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll

Author:Sean Carroll
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

(7.2)

We see at least one convenient feature of the electron volt: it’s a tiny amount of energy. Particles are tiny things, so these kinds of units make sense.

Thinking like a particle physicist, we can convert common units to and from electron volts.

1 eV ≈ 10‒33 grams

1 eV‒1 ≈ 10‒5 cm

1 eV‒1 ≈ 10‒15 sec

(7.3)

We shouldn’t interpret these relations as implying that we can physically transform an amount of distance into an amount of energy, or anything like that. They are simply choices of units with which to measure things. But as we will see, they provide rough rules of thumb to relate common distances and times to particle physics processes. One electron volt is a small amount of mass, and its inverse is a small distance and a short period of time, at least by human standards.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.