electron volt
Noun: A unit of energy used in physics, especially for atomic and subatomic particles. It is defined as the amount of kinetic energy gained or lost by a single electron when it accelerates through an electric potential difference of one volt.
The electron volt is a very small unit of energy, suitable for describing energies at the atomic scale. It is commonly used in particle physics, nuclear physics, and solid-state physics. * The ionization energy of a hydrogen atom is approximately 13.6 electron volts. * Particle accelerators can boost protons to energies of several trillion electron volts (TeV).
- Multiples: Because the electron volt is so small, prefixes are used to describe larger energies.
- kilo-electron volt (keV): 1,000 eV. Used for X-ray photons and some nuclear processes.
- mega-electron volt (MeV): 1,000,000 eV. Typical for energies in nuclear reactions and gamma rays.
- giga-electron volt (GeV): 1,000,000,000 eV. Common in high-energy particle physics (e.g., the mass of a proton is about 0.938 GeV/c²).
- tera-electron volt (TeV): 1,000,000,000,000 eV. Used for the highest energies in modern particle colliders.
- eV: The standard abbreviation for electron volt.
- Electronvolt: An alternative, single-word spelling.
- There is no direct synonym for this specific, defined unit of measurement. In general contexts of energy, "unit of energy" is a broad paraphrase.
While defined in terms of electrical potential, the electron volt is a unit of energy, not voltage. It can be used to measure mass (via Einstein's equation E=mc², where mass is expressed in eV/c²), momentum (in eV/c), and temperature (where 1 eV corresponds to approximately 11,604 kelvin).
- a unit of energy equal to the work done by an electron accelerated through a potential difference of 1 volt