The energy of small particles is often expressed in millions of electron volts.One electron volt is the energy transferred when an electron is moved through a potential difference of 1 volt.The definition of potential difference is V = W/Q. i.e potential difference is work done per unit charge.Using the equation W = QV where work done is equal to the charge × the potential difference the energy of the electron moving through a potential difference of 1 volt is eV which is 1.6×10-19 Joules which is equivalent to 1eV.Given the rest mass of a particle, the rest energy of a particle can be calculated using E = mc2.
The Electron Volt
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Specification: AQA Physics (7407), AS-level, 3.2.1.1 Constituents of the atom. Topic: Particles and Radiation.
Key terms in this lesson
- Strong nuclear force
- The short-range attractive force between nucleons that overcomes the electrostatic repulsion between protons and holds the nucleus together, becoming repulsive at very short separations.
- Hadron
- A particle made up of quarks that interacts through the strong interaction; hadrons are divided into baryons and mesons.
- Quark
- A fundamental particle that combines with other quarks to make up hadrons; at A-level, up, down and strange quarks are considered.
- Pion
- A meson, made of a quark-antiquark pair, that may be positively charged, negatively charged or neutral; produced through the strong interaction and decaying through the weak interaction.
More in Particles and Radiation
- Radioactive Decay
- Alpha Radiation
- Beta Radiation
- Gamma Radiation and Electromagnetic Waves
- Photons
- Anti-matter
- Annihilation
- Pair Production
All 22 lessons in Particles and Radiation · All AQA AS-level Physics topics