Why are electrons negative?

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Like where does the charge comes from?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

You get into really complicated physics with this one and eventually you’ll reach some version of a ‘just because’ answer.

Basically, electrons are a “fundamental particle” meaning nothing makes up an electron, they ‘just are’. Protons on the other hand are made of smaller particles called ‘quarks’ (rhymes with “quart”). There are a small variety of quarks, I believe there are 6 “flavors” (that’s what they call the types) and if you are following me so far, each quark has an electric charge just like the electron does. Ultimately, it’s a combination of quarks that make protons positive and electrons are negative all by themselves.

But what *is* charge? What *causes* it? That’s a mouthful and the problem is we don’t have a single agreed upon form of physics to explain that question. At the moment we have “really good” versions of physics that each explain like 80% of what’s happening but work together. They are called “the Standard Model” and “Quantum Electrodynamics” and you can do some googling on your own to look it up but it’s pretty heady stuff .

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