Electrons in Electric Fields: Examining Changes

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
4 replies · 2K views
Magnetons
Messages
22
Reaction score
3
What changes occur in electron, whenit through in a electric field
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Delta2
Physics news on Phys.org
According to classical physics nothing changes in the charge distribution of electron as electron is considered to be a point particle and all its charge is concentrated in one point of space.

The only change that can happen is in the position and velocity of electron as electron will experience the force from the electric field ##F_E=Eq_e## (where E the intensity of the electric field) and if this force is the only force upon the electron then according to classical mechanics (and neglecting the energy lost due to EM radiation from the electron being accelerating) we ll have $$Eq_e=m_e\frac{d^2x}{dt^2}$$ where ##q_e,m_e## the charge and mass of electron respectively and ##x(t)## its position as function of time.
 
Last edited:
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Magnetons
@Magnetons to put it shortly and in plain english, nothing changes "in the electron" itself and truth be told there is no such thing as "inside an electron", at least to the best of our current knowledge. But electrons do have properties, an E field can basically either accelerate or decelerate an electron. So the electron either gains or loses kinetic energy.
depending on the trajectory , kinetic energy of the electron and the E field line direction applied the electron can be either accelerated or decelerated in straight lines or deflected and bent from a straight trajectory into a curve, or it's trajectory can be changed by certain angle.
Some old small CRT's used E field instead of B field to deflect the electron beam
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Delta2