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The Electron

In Our Time: Science

CHAPTER

The Electron Is So Small That It Has the Same Charge as a Proton

It's very difficult for us to really- I'm enjoying the difficult shape. So of course this is a theoretical prediction and as an experimentalist we like to test that. We found that it's smaller than 10 to the minus 18 centimeters, but we just don't have the experimental precision to go down any smaller. It does have a size, so it could be made, for example, of a vibrating string, which is something that string theory suggests, but we really don't know. The answer is true, yes it does. That atoms are electrically overall neutral unless they're ionized.

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