What is meant by saying electric charge is quantized?

Answer 1

Without going into the detailed mathematical proof (cos it's unnecessary), the energies of electrons can only have certain specific values. If you imagine a staircase, the steps are set at certain specific heights. There are no in between steps between steps. Let these steps represent different energy levels, with the energy increasing in value as you move up from one step to the next. Well, a comparable situation exists in an atom. There are certain discrete "steps" or energy levels in an atom, and an electron can only exist at one of these levels. It cannot exist anywhere in between any of the levels. So, an electron can only have certain amounts of energy. If you stimulated an electron with some extra energy, such as an electrical charge, the electron would only be able to absorb a certain amount, or quantity, of this extra energy, and this quantity would correspond to the difference in energy between one energy level and another (although these energy levels need not be adjacent - "steps" can be missed out when the elctron jumps levels). On the atomic scale, these quantities of energy are given the name "quanta." In friendlier terms, they are called packets of energy. These packages can only come in certain defined sizes.

Answer 2

Without going into the detailed mathematical proof (cos it's unnecessary), the energies of electrons can only have certain specific values. If you imagine a staircase, the steps are set at certain specific heights. There are no in between steps between steps. Let these steps represent different energy levels, with the energy increasing in value as you move up from one step to the next. Well, a comparable situation exists in an atom. There are certain discrete "steps" or energy levels in an atom, and an electron can only exist at one of these levels. It cannot exist anywhere in between any of the levels. So, an electron can only have certain amounts of energy. If you stimulated an electron with some extra energy, such as an electrical charge, the electron would only be able to absorb a certain amount, or quantity, of this extra energy, and this quantity would correspond to the difference in energy between one energy level and another (although these energy levels need not be adjacent - "steps" can be missed out when the elctron jumps levels). On the atomic scale, these quantities of energy are given the name "quanta." In friendlier terms, they are called packets of energy. These packages can only come in certain defined sizes.

Answer 3

Without going into the detailed mathematical proof (cos it's unnecessary), the energies of electrons can only have certain specific values. If you imagine a staircase, the steps are set at certain specific heights. There are no in between steps between steps. Let these steps represent different energy levels, with the energy increasing in value as you move up from one step to the next. Well, a comparable situation exists in an atom. There are certain discrete "steps" or energy levels in an atom, and an electron can only exist at one of these levels. It cannot exist anywhere in between any of the levels. So, an electron can only have certain amounts of energy. If you stimulated an electron with some extra energy, such as an electrical charge, the electron would only be able to absorb a certain amount, or quantity, of this extra energy, and this quantity would correspond to the difference in energy between one energy level and another (although these energy levels need not be adjacent - "steps" can be missed out when the elctron jumps levels). On the atomic scale, these quantities of energy are given the name "quanta." In friendlier terms, they are called packets of energy. These packages can only come in certain defined sizes.

Answer 4

It means that energy can't have just any old number. It can only have certain numbers

that are spaced by a constant amount, but nothing in between those. When energy moves

from one place to another, it has to move in those quantities, and it can't move in fractions

of them.

An example that may help:

Money is quantized. The price of something for sale can't be just any old number.

It can only have numbers that are 1 penny apart, but nothing in between pennies.

You can talk about prices that are between pennies, but once you transfer money

from one person to another, it can only move in multiples of pennies, not in fractions

of them.

Answer 5

It means that it is at a certain energy level, and there are no in between values. So, it can be 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, but cannot be 2.3 or 3.5, etc. The electrons have certain energies and they are like packets, and they don't exist in fractions of packets.

Answer 6

Electric charge being quantized means that it exists only in discrete, fixed amounts, which are multiples of the elementary charge (e). This implies that the charge of any object is always a whole number multiple of the elementary charge.

Answer 7

Electric charge comes in multiples of an electron , 1.6E-19 Coulombs.