electron volt
1
5.6
- noun
- /ˈɛlɛktrɒn voʊlt/
- Specialized
:
electronvolt
- In comparison, visible photons have energies between 1.7 electron volts (red) and 3 electron volts (violet).
- billion electron volts
- 30 billion electron volts
- million electron volts
And that gap was around one or two electron volts.
- And that gap was around one or two electron volts.
Examples
-
The fissioning of a uranium atom unleashes 210 million electron volts—50 million times as much as a carbon atom.
Blog text (11) -
In particle physics, scientists often discuss collisions that occur at over 10 million electron volts.
-
The range then becomes 1 to 30 million electron volts.
Academic text (1996) -
This is the equivalent of six million electron volts of X ray
-
The electron volt is the energy that an electron gains when accelerated by a potential difference of one volt.
Academic text (1990) -
The light we see with human eyes consists of photons with energies in the range of 2 to 3 electron volts.
Blog text (32) -
The energy needed to remove an electron from an atom is a few electron volts and depends on the type of atom and how many electrons have already been removed.
Academic text (1990) -
The experiment required energies in the range of one to several billion electron volts.
-
An X-ray machine typically operates at about 100 electron volts for medical imaging.
Synonyms
12
8.6
A small unit of energy equal to the energy an electron gains when it moves through one volt
1
3.0
A way to measure energy, like a calorie or joule
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound clearly links 'electron' and 'volt', so a learner can infer it denotes a physics quantity involving an electron and electric potential; this gives partial, cross-linguistically common transparency. However, the precise sense—that it is a unit of energy equal to the work done by a single electron across one volt—is technical and not directly deducible from everyday meanings, so domain knowledge is required.
Etymology
Electron volt comes from the words electron and volt and names the energy one electron gains when it moves through a difference of one volt. Imagine a tiny particle being pushed up a small electric hill; that small push is the amount this unit measures, so scientists use electron volt to talk about very small 'energy' amounts in physics.