Thread: Is it possible to attract ALL Electrons within a range to one spot?

Hi,

I have always pondered whether it is possible to attract all electrons within an area to one spot. I am stuck on the effects of protons since they repel electrons (hence the negative effect on the electron in an atom).
I can't seem to find a way around it. Help?

Cheers

There is a technique, ironically called a trap.
Depending on what you mean by "one spot," electrons can be isolated into a specific area and... mostly contained there. How this is done is a bit complex but I had given a sort of brief description in another thread sometime back...

Originally Posted by Sci_Research

I have always pondered whether it is possible to attract all electrons within an area to one spot.

A positive charge will do it. Or if you want to keep them floating around as free electrons then you need something like a: Penning trap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am stuck on the effects of protons since they repel electrons (hence the negative effect on the electron in an atom).

Huh? Protons are positively charged and so attract electrons. That is why electrons are attracted to atoms until the charge is neutral. (The reasons why the electrons stay some distance away from the nucleus are somewhat more complex and require a basic understanding of quantum theory.)

yup neverfly and its called an electron trap

[QUOTE=Strange;404632]

Originally Posted by Sci_Research

I am stuck on the effects of protons since they repel electrons (hence the negative effect on the electron in an atom).

Huh? Protons are positively charged and so attract electrons. That is why electrons are attracted to atoms until the charge is neutral. (The reasons why the electrons stay some distance away from the nucleus are somewhat more complex and require a basic understanding of quantum theory.)

Sorry my mistake. I thought it was protons that held negative charges within the atom. But i remembered for every electron there is a proton. Wondering if there is a neutron for every pair within the atom? I'll read up on it and quantum theory. Thanks Strange.

Also just wondering, is there any way of creating electrons, protons and neutrons in a laboratory? Or does it require a really expensive machine to do it?

Originally Posted by Neverfly

There is a technique, ironically called a trap.
Depending on what you mean by "one spot," electrons can be isolated into a specific area and... mostly contained there. How this is done is a bit complex but I had given a sort of brief description in another thread sometime back...

Ok cool. So i'm thinking if electrons were to be attracted to one spot and charged up rapidly, would this mean that on release, every electron sucked into that one spot like a vacuum would release its energy by 'bouncing' off each other and going into every direction in a 360 degree radius?

Just a thought

Originally Posted by Sci_Research

Ok cool. So i'm thinking if electrons were to be attracted to one spot and charged up rapidly, would this mean that on release, every electron sucked into that one spot like a vacuum would release its energy by 'bouncing' off each other and going into every direction in a 360 degree radius?

It's not quite as simple as that... For one thing, there is more than one trapping apparatus and many different experiments performed with them. These will govern ultimate outcomes.
There is the Penning trap and the electron ion trap... and the experiments can trap highly charged ions or result in rapid decay.

Originally Posted by Sci_Research

But i remembered for every electron there is a proton. Wondering if there is a neutron for every pair within the atom? I'll read up on it and quantum theory.

The number of neutrons is roughly the same as the number of protons. Larger atoms tend to have more neutrons than protons. Some elements can have atoms (isotopes) with different numbers of neutrons. Sometimes these are radioactive.

Also just wondering, is there any way of creating electrons, protons and neutrons in a laboratory?

Radioactivity is the easiest (and potentially dangerous) way. We used a radioactive source in college when we experiment with electron tracks in a cloud chamber. Old fashioned TV screens (CRT) used a beam of electrons to generate the image, so there are low cost ways of manipulating them. But you do, generally, need a high vacuum.