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Side question. I understand the positive and negative charges, but when we say "+1" or "-1" what are the units? I never understood that part. an electron is -

Side question. I understand the positive and negative charges, but when we say "+1" or "-1" what are the units? I never understood that part. an electron is -1 and a proton is +1, but what makes them equal? Why / how do all these things of varying sizes and properties have the same magnitude for charges?

jdmichal 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge And, more specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge#Charges_less_than_an_elementary_charge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge#Charges_less... Basically, quarks seem to have charges that are 1/3 e. However, they can only be stable in groups of three, and those groups must have an integer value. So the only possibilities are -1, 0, and 1. As to why the above is true, it just seems to be a rule. We don't have any good reasoning for why that rule exists.
- ellis-bell 5y ago
  mesons are composed of two quarks and can have neutral or non-neutral charge. baryons are composed of three quarks and can have neutral or non-neutral charge. both mesons and baryons are classified as hadrons charge, baryon number, isospin and strangeness are all related by the Gell-Mann-Nishijima formula[1]. the overarching principle underlying this is that in quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong interaction, quarks are representations of an underlying SU(3) gauge group containing color charge (a quantum number) and electric charge quantized as -1/3e and +2/3e. QCD is a gauge theory (like all other theories of nature) and the gauge boson, the gluon, also pops out of demanding the theory be invariant under local SU(3) gauge transformations. that said, no one has any clue why all of our physical theories are gauge theories :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann%E2%80%93Nishijima_formula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann%E2%80%93Nishijima_fo...
  - cupofpython 5y ago
    very interesting! I am rather unfamiliar with quantum chromodynamics but I am going to enjoy the gauge theory rabbit hole
  - hnuser123456 5y ago
    Would a theory of the history of the universe be a non-gauge theory since there was fast initial inflation, a relative slowdown, and now accelerating expansion again? Nothing seems conserved here. It seems symmetries were broken as the forces split apart, anti-particles were annihilated, etc

jdmichal 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge And, more specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge#Charges_less_than_an_elementary_charge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_charge#Charges_less... Basically, quarks seem to have charges that are 1/3 e. However, they can only be stable in groups of three, and those groups must have an integer value. So the only possibilities are -1, 0, and 1. As to why the above is true, it just seems to be a rule. We don't have any good reasoning for why that rule exists.

ellis-bell 5y ago
mesons are composed of two quarks and can have neutral or non-neutral charge. baryons are composed of three quarks and can have neutral or non-neutral charge. both mesons and baryons are classified as hadrons charge, baryon number, isospin and strangeness are all related by the Gell-Mann-Nishijima formula[1]. the overarching principle underlying this is that in quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong interaction, quarks are representations of an underlying SU(3) gauge group containing color charge (a quantum number) and electric charge quantized as -1/3e and +2/3e. QCD is a gauge theory (like all other theories of nature) and the gauge boson, the gluon, also pops out of demanding the theory be invariant under local SU(3) gauge transformations. that said, no one has any clue why all of our physical theories are gauge theories :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann%E2%80%93Nishijima_formula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann%E2%80%93Nishijima_fo...
- cupofpython 5y ago
  very interesting! I am rather unfamiliar with quantum chromodynamics but I am going to enjoy the gauge theory rabbit hole
- hnuser123456 5y ago
  Would a theory of the history of the universe be a non-gauge theory since there was fast initial inflation, a relative slowdown, and now accelerating expansion again? Nothing seems conserved here. It seems symmetries were broken as the forces split apart, anti-particles were annihilated, etc