First Draft

Shane Wood

Section 092

Short Personal Essay

Electrons: The Unsung Heroes of our Physical World

Electrons are being used by the human population throughout the world constantly, and have been doing so for thousands of years. Little do we think about the contributions that this elementary particle has made not only to industrial society but to the human condition. Without it the mechanics of thought would be all but impossible. Right now as you read this you brain is computing something on the order of ten petaFLOPS, or about 1,000,000,000,000,000 FLoating point Operations Per Second. This amount of processing power is above and beyond the most powerful computers on the planet, the fastest of which is “Road Runner” located in Los Alamos National laboratory, which only has the processing power of about 1.7 petaFLOPS. Neither the computer nor your brain would be capable of processing anything without the electron. As the elemental signal carrier of both you and the computer, neither of you would be able to exist. I would say that this instance alone would make the humble electron very significant indeed, but there is so much more that the electron does that goes unnoticed. All of mankind’s electronics wouldn’t exist. This would mean that hybrid vehicles, medical equipment, electrolysis, and the effects of the movement of electrons wouldn’t be able to be used for our benefit. This would mean that the electromagnetic force wouldn’t exist. Solenoids, electric motors, and servos would be unable to function. Speakers and commutations would fail and be rendered inoperable. I think that we don’t fully comprehend the degree that humans and electrons are integrated. When you get down to brass tacks electrons are as important as water or air, maybe even more so. One could survive without air or water, if only for an extremely short time. But, without electrons our consciousness wouldn’t even exist. The funny thing is we aren’t even able to observe an electron. Were not even able to say for certain where they actually are, scientist refer to their areas around atom as “electron clouds”, and these clouds are only volumes were electrons have a probability of showing up. Heck, were not even certain if electrons stay in the same dimension we’re in. Another incredible feature that the electron possesses is size. If you were to enlarge an atom to the size of a basket ball the electrons of said atom would be smaller than a grain of rice. So, armed with this new knowledge and awareness about our good friend, the electron, we should all strive to be more thankful for its creation. Now as use any of the technology that we enjoy we can be safe in the assurance that the electron is doing its job. Because as we all know, there are people that believe that we take our current technology for granted. We have moved past thinking about the electron and moved on to “bigger and better” things. But I think it’s time to sit back and contemplate the particle that makes our world possible.