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Does a muon have the same charge as an electron?
The muon (/ˈmjuːɒn/; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 e and a spin of 1/2, but with a much greater mass.
What is the difference between a muon and an electron?
Muons are about 200 times heavier than electrons; muons are about 100 MeV, whereas electrons are about 0.5 MeV. It follows that whereas an electron is stopped in the ECAL, a muon just ploughs through it and into the muon chamber, as illustrated by this cartoon from this blog post about the muon.
Can muons be positive or negative?
muon, elementary subatomic particle similar to the electron but 207 times heavier. It has two forms, the negatively charged muon and its positively charged antiparticle.
What is the charge of a muon neutrino?
0 e
Muon neutrino
Composition | Elementary particle |
---|---|
Theorized | (1940s) |
Discovered | Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger (1962) |
Mass | Small but non-zero. See neutrino mass. |
Electric charge | 0 e |
How big is a muon compared to an electron?
Muons are about 200 times heavier than the electron. While this larger mass makes them interesting, it also makes them unstable. Whereas electrons live forever, muons exist for only about two microseconds—or two millionths of a second—before they decay.
Can muons be positive?
Muons have either a positive or negative unit electric charge (expressed as µ+ or µ-) and a low mass—approximately one-ninth that of a proton. They have a mean lifetime of approximately 2.2 µs, subsequently decaying into either a positron (for µ+) or an electron (for µ-) and two neutrinos.
Is a muon a type of neutrino?
second type of neutrino, the muon-neutrino. Identification of the muon-neutrino as distinct from the electron-neutrino was accomplished in 1962 on the basis of the results of a particle-accelerator experiment.
Is muon a heavy electron?
Muons are about 200 times heavier than the electron. Whereas electrons live forever, muons exist for only about two microseconds—or two millionths of a second—before they decay. If a muon were produced at the exact same time a gun was fired, the muon would decay long before the bullet left the barrel.