[General] Electron Size in a Collision

[Andrew Meulenberg]

Dear John D.,

The various definitions of the electron radius have meaning. They are just
not often stated and therefore are often misused. Physics often uses
full-width half-maximum (FWHM, or HWHM for half-width) to describe the
'size' of something with ill-defined edges. However, this does not work for
the electron because there is no 'peak'. On the other hand, there are known
(integrated) quantities that have been used (energy, mass, charge, etc.)
and, if labeled and used properly, these can be made into useful
definitions of electron radius (classical - based on energy/mass;  Compton
- based on potential?; and Bohr - based on deBroglie wavelength).

The eye of a hurricane is an observable. Is it useful? I don't know. If it
is like the classical electron radius then it may not directly give you a
radius of destruction; but, as measured from space, it could still be very
useful.

Andrew
___________________________________________
On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 11:39 PM, John Duffield <johnduffield at btconnect.com>
wrote:

>   All:
>
> I’ve just come back from a weekend away, and I’m afraid I can’t address
> all the points in all the emails I’ve got.
>
> But as regards the electron size, can I say that an electromagnetic wave
> is a field variation that doesn’t have any edge, and when we wind it round
> with a twist to create an electron, what we have is a standing field. That
> doesn’t have any edge either. The electron isn’t some tiny thing at the
> centre of this field, it *is* this field. Talking about the size of the
> electron whilst referring to the Compton wavelength or dividing this by 4π
> is IMHO a mistake. It’s something like saying hurricane Katrina was 5km
> across because that’s the size of the eye of the storm.
>
> Regards
> John D
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.natureoflightandparticles.org/pipermail/general-natureoflightandparticles.org/attachments/20150413/f38084bc/attachment.htm>