Electron volts (eV) are a small unit of energy used in physics research, derived from the energy required to move a single electron through an electrical potential of one volt. They are used in fields such as nuclear and particle physics, astronomy, and chemistry. While not a standard metric unit, they can be used to represent a unit of mass in physics calculations. There is no direct conversion to electron volts from standard volts as they measure different things.
An electron volt (eV) is a very small unit of energy used in physics research fields such as nuclear and particle physics, in part due to the fact that the standard unit of energy, the joule, is too large to have any meaning clear in such research as a basic unit. The standard value of an electron volt is calculated as 1.602 x 10-19 joules, or a fraction of 0.0000000000000000001602 of a joule. The value is derived from the energy required to move a single electron through an electrical potential of one volt, or as the equivalent amount of energy carried by a photon of light. A trillion electron volts (TeV), or 1 x 1012 eV, is still such a small energy value that it is considered equivalent to the amount of work energy an ant expends when it moves and a standard 100-watt incandescent light bulb burns 2,200,000,000,000 times more energy than an ant per hour, or 2.2 x 1024 electron volts.
The use of electron volt values is also widespread in other fields of fundamental scientific research, where, in certain calculations, they can represent values of temperature or electromagnetic radiation. This includes astronomy, where it is used to classify wavelengths of light. This is because the electron volt is a fundamental measure of kinetic energy that can be practically applied to research at the molecular level. A value of 13.6 eV equals the energy required to ionize a hydrogen atom, which is the most common element encountered in astronomical research. A value of 4.2 eV is required to break down a salt molecule into its constituent elements sodium and chloride, making electron volts a convenient measurement term for many common chemical reactions.
Despite its widespread use in research, the electron volt is not considered a standard metric unit, as its value can change based on experimental conditions and requirements. It can also be used to represent a unit of mass in physics calculations to balance the units of energy in the special relativity equation of E = MC2. This allows the mass of subatomic particles such as protons to be calculated, where one proton is equivalent to 938,000,000 eV divided by the speed of light squared, which is expressed as a Giga electron volt in shorthand as 0.938 GeV/c2.
There is no direct conversion to electron volts from standard volts as a measure of electric potential. While the two seem derivative, they are measurements of different things, with electron volts being a joule-based measure of kinetic energy and volts being a measure of the potential difference between two conductive points. Electron volts, however, follow the metric convention for amount increments, with the prefix kilo representing 1.000 in KeV; mega representing one million or MeV; gig representing one billion GeV; and so on.
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