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Curiously, this most common of atomic parts has only a fuzzy estimate of size.

Linus Pauling says "The radius of the electron has not been determined exactly, but it is known to be less than 1 X 10-13 cm".

So roughly the electron is 1/1000 the size of a proton. Maybe. But a cooler answer is-- physicists are annoyed by the question. A good case can be made for other sizes, even huge sizes....because the properties of the electron OTHER than it's size are the ONLY important ones. In fact the size of atomic pieces smaller than the nucleus usually does not matter at all....and may in fact have no meaning. After all, how do you propose to measure these guys?

The electron is known to be a point particle down to a limit of 10^-18m. It, as far as we know does not have a classical "size".

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14y ago

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