The joule is much too large a unit for our purposes:
energies are measured in MeV (million electron volts),
where 1eV = J. Of course, this maintains
a contact with the experimental side of things - you need 1 MV
potential difference to
accelerate a proton to 1 MeV. In atomic physics, by way of contrast,
energies are of the order of 1 eV.
Physics Department
Wed Nov 6 08:30:28 GMT+0200 1996
J. Of course, this maintains
a contact with the experimental side of things - you need 1 MV
potential difference to
accelerate a proton to 1 MeV. In atomic physics, by way of contrast,
energies are of the order of 1 eV.