Difference between charge of electron and proton?

AI Thread Summary
Electrons and protons are understood to have equal but opposite charges, with the electron carrying a negative charge and the proton a positive charge. The discussion revolves around a perceived small difference in their charges, which seems to be a misunderstanding. Participants express confusion over the claim of a charge difference, noting that textbooks and reliable sources do not support this notion. It is suggested that clarification from the teacher would help resolve the confusion. Overall, the consensus is that electrons and protons have equivalent magnitudes of charge, reinforcing the concept of charge quantization.
Keru
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Hey guys,

I understand it would be logical for electron and proton to have the same charge but with opposite signs... Why then is there a smalll difference between their charges?

Thank you
 
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Keru said:
Why then is there a smalll difference between their charges?

What difference?
 
Keru said:
Why then is there a smalll difference between their charges?

That's news to me. Where did you read this?
 
I heard from a teacher at University, he said something like "let's suppose that the electron and the proton have exactly the opposite charge even though that's not exactly true". I didn't have the chance to ask him which was the difference and I didn't want to wait until Monday to know. I also heard something similar a few weeks ago but now I'm searching on the internet and my textbooks and i can't find any difference in the measures of charges... Maybe i just misundertood something.
It seemed really weird to me cause i thought that "e" was the quantum of electric charge (without thinking of quarks), and if the proton had some similar but slightly different charge then that wouldn't be true.

If nobody has heard about this maybe I just misunderstood my teacher... I'll ask him to see if i can solve the misunderstanding.

Thank you for your time and sorry for my bad english.
 
Your English is fine.
I think it would be best, as you suggested, to talk to the teacher to find out what was misunderstood.
 

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