elementary charge
Sign in to saveAlso known as elementary positive charge, elementary electric charge
the electric charge carried by a single proton or a single positron
The elementary charge is the amount of electric charge carried by a single proton or positron, and it serves as the fundamental unit of electric charge in physics. This matters because all electric charges in nature are multiples of this basic unit, making it essential for understanding and measuring electricity at the smallest scales.
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Wikidata facts
Show 4 more facts
- numeric value
- 0.0000000000000000001602176634
- conversion to SI unit
- 0.0000000000000000001602176634
- unit symbol
- e
- NCI Thesaurus ID
- C68800
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Article
The elementary charge, usually denoted by e, is a fundamental physical constant, defined as the electric charge carried by a single proton (+1 e) or, equivalently, the negative of the electric charge carried by a single electron, which has charge −1 e.
In SI units, the coulomb is defined such that the value of the elementary charge is exactly e = 1.602176634×10 C. Since the 2019 revision of the SI, the seven SI base units are defined in terms of seven fundamental physical constants, of which the elementary charge is one.