Skip to content
quotesby

as the pattern of events is unaltered by motion, the mechanism must be the same when the electron is in motion as when it is at rest. But experiment shows that an electron in motion exerts additional forces which are not the same for all directions in space; if we picture this electron as moving head-foremost through space, these forces surround it like a belt around its waist.

James Jeans#9

Physics

About this quote

What does it mean?
An electron in motion creates directional forces around it, unlike one at rest.
In plain terms
Moving electrons push back differently depending on direction.
What can you take from it?
Motion changes how electrons interact with forces.

Where it applies

  • particle physics
  • theoretical modeling
  • education

Putting it to work

  • predicting behavior
  • analyzing forces
  • teaching dynamics

Questions to consider

  • How does motion affect matter?
  • Are forces always symmetric?

Another view

It assumes a mechanical picture that may not fully represent reality.

More from James Jeans

  1. ...when the experiment was attempted by Michelson and Morley it failed, thus showing that space and time assumed in the picture were not true to the facts of n…

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. if a shower of electrons is shot on to a zinc sulphide screen, a number of flashes are produced - one for each electron - and we may picture the electrons as b…

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. Then the theory of relativity came and explained the cause of the failure. Electric action requires time to travel from one point of space to another, the simp…

    Permalink to quote #7

Related quotes

  1. Faraday, Maxwell, Larmor and a great number of others tried to explain electromagnetic action on these lines, but all attempts failed, and it began to seem imp…

    James JeansJames Jeans quote #6
  2. Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it …

    Enrico FermiEnrico Fermi quote #1
  3. When that amusing 'Pauli effect' of the overturned vase occurred, on the occasion of the founding of the Jung Institute, I had the immediate and vivid impressi…

    Wolfgang PauliWolfgang Pauli quote #1