What is charge quantiztion?

Answer 1

-- For just a second, think of money. There are only certain amounts of money that

you can have, because there is a thing called a 'cent' and it's the smallest amount

of money that exists. As you go from less money to more money, you can only have

some number of cents, but no amount in between. Nobody can give you a part of a

cent. We would say that money is "quantized" ... it comes in tiny pieces, that are all

the same size and can't be split up. The "quantum" of money ... the cent ...is the

value of the penny coin.

-- Electric charge is also quantized. There are only certain amounts of charge that

you can have, because there is a thing called an 'elementary charge' and it's the

smallest amount of charge that exists. As you go from less charge to more charge,

you can only have some number of elementary charges, but no amount in between.

Nobody can give you a part of an elementary charge. Charge comes in tiny pieces,

that are all the same size and can't be split up. The elementary charge ... the "quantum"

of charge ... is the amount of charge on one electron (negative) or one proton (positive).