![]() If you find the concept of a fixed amount of mass being contained in the infinitely small volume of a single point illogical, then you should. In this context, physicists call an electron a "point particle," meaning that it interacts as if it is entirely located at a single point in space and does not spread out to fill a three-dimensional volume. When an electron looks more like a particle it has no shape, according to the Standard Model. This wavefunction looks in certain ways like a wave and in other ways like a particle.Īn electron looks like a particle when it interacts with other objects in certain ways (such as in high-speed collisions). ![]() To be more accurate, an electron is neither literally a traditional wave nor a traditional particle, but is instead a quantized fluctuating probability wavefunction. Along with all other quantum objects, an electron is partly a wave and partly a particle. The reason for this is that an electron is not a solid little ball, despite being so often portrayed this way in the popular media and in elementary-level science texts. The shape of an electron is never statically round like an orange. Baird.ĭepending on how you define "shape", an electron either has no shape, or an electron can take on various wave shapes. ![]() Public Domain Image, source: Christopher S. When interacting like a particle, an electron is exactly a single point in space and has no shape according to the Standard Model, as shown in this illustration.
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