this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
815 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

11431 readers
1387 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago (2 children)

When is it my turn with the electron?

[–] FlyingSquid 68 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can have it as long as you don't observe it.

[–] voldage 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

don't worry guys I'm keeping track of it it's moving very fast but oh fuck sorry guys my bad

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

For fuck sake Pauli, stop trying to smush it in the palm of your hand!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm gonna catch it with chopsticks.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Dogs_cant_look_up 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It already is been again and soon now.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] iAvicenna 76 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I see, charge is a class method and not an instance method. Well played universe creator.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

Don’t most sub-atomic particles have the same charge and mass? Why just electrons?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, electrons are much smaller than protons, which are slightly smaller than neutrons.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think they meant “aren’t all protons the same as other protons?, neutrons as other neutrons?, etc.”

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah exactly. I couldn’t think of how to phrase that exactly without a long explanation though.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

It made sense to me. I also struggled to phrase it without sounding like I was insulting them for misunderstanding you.

[–] FlyingSquid 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You'd have to ask John Wheeler, which would be difficult since he died in 2008.

[–] BenPranklin 73 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Just get the electron to ask him next time it goes back in time, duh

[–] FlyingSquid 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would, but I only speak positronic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The whole thing is an abstraction. The nucleus isn't actually tiny ball shaped things mashed together, but rather cloudy stuff which would probably not be identical if we could actually see them. The quarks that make up protons and neutrons are considered elementary particles and identical, but they don't move around much unless energy is used to split them.

The electron however is an elementary particle that moves outside of the nucleus and can move from one atom to another. So the hypothesis is that if we could follow one electron from the big bang to the end of the universe, and this electron could move both forwards and backwards in time, it would potentially be enough with just one.

It probably doesn't hold up very well, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

A big part of quantum mechanics is the fact that matter can show wave-like behaviour, which sort of breaks a bunch of "rules" that we have from classical physics. This only is relevant if we're looking at stuff at a teensy tiny scale.

Someone else has already mentioned that electrons are a fair bit smaller than protons and neutrons (around 1840 times smaller) and this means they tend to have a smaller momentum than protons or neutrons, which means they have a larger wavelength, which was easier to measure experimentally. That's likely why electrons were a part of this theory, because they're small enough that they're sort of a perfect way to study the idea of things that are both particle and wave, but also neither. In 1940, quantum mechanics and particle physics were super rapidly moving fields, where our knowledge hadn't congealed much yet. What was clear was that electrons get up to some absolute nonsense behaviour that broke our understanding of how the world worked.

I like the results of some of the worked examples here: https://www.chemteam.info/Electrons/deBroglie-Equation.html , especially the one where they work out what the wavelength of a baseball would be (because that too, could theoretically act like a wave, it would just have an impossibly small wavelength)

TL;DR: electrons are smaller than protons/neutrons Smaller = larger wavelength Larger wavelength = easier to make experiments to see wave-like behaviour from the particle Therefore electrons were useful in figuring out how the heck a particle can have a wavelength and act like a wave

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] yesman 48 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nobody wants to covalent anymore.

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Fine, I’ll do it myself
-Thelectron

[–] FlyingSquid 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You have to be bonded and that's a whole bureaucratic mess.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] DragonsInARoom 41 points 1 month ago

Let him cook

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Create the parent entity electron, give it properties, then clone as needed

That's just efficient world design, guys, why make assets different if you don't gotta, yakno?

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Put a new skin on it and everyone thinks it's a whole different electron.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (8 children)

So if I can destroy 1 electron I destroy every electron?

[–] Duamerthrax 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You would need a positron to do that and all you might have done is reflect it backwards in time.

If you could "remove" it by placing it into another dimension, it might disprove the theory, but the causal domain might be larger then previous assumed.

This is one of those Math Theories that isn't technically a Science Theory. We can make a mathematical model, but it's untestable.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Only in its future. Probably you’d have to find the electron precisely at the end of its timeline.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Thanos should have picked a better strategy

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] ikidd 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

To his credit, Wheeler did try to make a quantum leap. It just wasn't coherent. If he had kept at it, I'm sure he would have had momentum.

[–] tdawg 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm glad you realized the gravity of the situation.

[–] ikidd 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

This thread indicates you might have a bit of a strange quark.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.

[–] Cascio 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Life is just a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] LovableSidekick 19 points 1 month ago

Shouldn't be just electrons though - don't all instances of any given type of subatomic particle have the same mass and charge?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

second, slightly different electron shows up

universe implodes or something

[–] PoopBuffet 14 points 1 month ago

Na, we got those too. Muons, tauons and neutrinos. But the universe unfortunately hasn't imploded, meaning I have to go to work and pay taxes and shit.

[–] athairmor 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So, if route all of the electricity in my house through my body, how far can I travel in time? What about a car battery’s worth?

[–] FlyingSquid 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, you need 1.21 jiggawats.

[–] athairmor 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I’m going to have to modify my juicer.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

It is an interesting theory, for sure. Instead of countless 3-dimensional particles, you have a single (or very few) 4-dimensional objects. You can imagine it like a sheet of fabric that is our present, with everything above the sheet being the future, everything below the past. When you want to sew a thread (our electron) through the sheet, you need to pierce the fabric, but to do it again, you first need to piece it the other way, giving you a positron. You can create or destroy arbitrary many of these, but you need create or destroy one of each every time. More interestingly, it is exactly determined which two will annihilate each other, as the allegorical loop of thread gets pulled tighter and tighter until it gets pulled though the sheet. The universe would be deterministic.

I'm sure there's a myriad of contradictions to modern QM and particle physics, but it's fun to think about nonetheless

[–] Technotica 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

One reason why that is probably not true is because there are less positrons but if it were true they should number the same as electrons, right?

But if electrons are moving along the same "time direction" as we are and positrons are moving in the opposite "direction" then wouldn't we expect there to be less protons? As we can't measure the protons that already "passed" us? And we would measure more electrons as a some/many/all of the existing electrons are traveling alongside us?

[–] FlyingSquid 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think you may have put more thought into this than Feynman. But then he probably had someone waiting for him in bed...

[–] Technotica 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I know! Horrible isn't it? I just can't help it, thinking about stuff is actually fun for me... so embarrassing!

[–] FlyingSquid 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It was more a joke about how Feynman had two great loves: physics and fucking. And probably fucking more than physics.

[–] Technotica 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah I see ;) I also have two loves, but my gaming pc is too heavy to drag to bed...

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Currently reading Hyperion... Got it, the electron is the Shrike!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›