![]() Thus e is still the smallest electrical charge that will be typically encountered outside the field of particle physics. ![]() However a property of quarks called confinement means that at low energies quarks are bound into colourless, multiple quark states which have charges that are integer multiples of e and only at high energies, such as top quark decay, do the fractional charges become evident. ![]() The term elementary charge when referring to an electron charge is therefore scientifically a misnomer. The discovery of quarks in 1974 showed for the first time that this was not correct and currently the smallest known electric charge is e / 3 (⅓ e) which down-like quarks possess. Historically the name comes from a period of time before quarks were discovered when e was thought to be the smallest electric charge existing in nature. e is regarded as a fundamental physical constant and the current internationally agreed upon value from CODATA stands at:Į = (1.602 176 487 ± 0.000 000 040) x 10 -19 Coulombs Īs the proton carries a positive charge, the magnitude of its charge is designated, +e, whereas the magnitude of the charge on the electron, which carries a negative charge, is designated, -e. It was first measured by Robert Millikan in 1909 using his famous oil drop experiment. The term elementary charge, designated e, refers to the magnitude of the electrical charge both on an electron and on a proton. ![]()
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