Protons And Electrons Trading Places

Electricity and Magnetism Level 1

In our universe, protons have a positive charge while electrons have a negative charge. If all the charges in the universe were reversed so that electrons had a positive charge and protons had a negative charge, then what would happen to electromagnetic phenomena such radio waves, currents, static electricity, and formation of atoms?

We wouldn't be here as atoms couldn't form. The universe would explode. Electric currents couldn't flow as they are generated by the motion of negative charges. Nothing.

9 solutions

Ronak Agarwal
Jun 27, 2014

Negative and positive charges are just our convention of considering the nature of charges, so reversing the charge polarity doesn't actually affect anything!

Protons are 1000 times heavier than electrons so you can't have something that heavy spinning with the same energy

Pratyush Priyadarshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

The problem states that only their charges would be changed, not their masses. There shouldn't be any difference. Imagine an atom, with protons with negative charge, in the nucleus with the same mass thet they had before and an electron orbiting the nucleus with a positive charge. What would change? Nothing.

Gabriel Alves - 6 years, 11 months ago

well..i have a doubt.. the direction of current has been (conventionally) set as the direction opposite to the flow of negative charge and calling electron as positive won't change the fact that electron are the ones that flow...so now the direction of current would be reversed...initially being opposite to the direction of flow of electrons and now same as their direction of flow...??!

charvi vitthal - 6 years, 11 months ago

Heaviness or mass is a mechanical property, it has no effect on how charged particles interact. Electrical polarity is just a convention, just what we call it. If someday we just started calling positive charges negative and vice versa, it won't change what they are and how they behave. Its just that certain properties will change their sign( -ve and +ve) if we don't change any of our existing laws.

I'm no expert and I could be totally wrong though.

Agnivesh Adhikari - 6 years, 11 months ago

You are completely correct

Ronak Agarwal - 6 years, 11 months ago

buddy e=mc^2 ... is not a joke there will be a difference in the interaction of particle a little bit but it will be not negligible though.

Arnab Som - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Arnab Som – Agnivesh was talking about the changing the the conventional setting of charges and not every laws of Physics or science.

Alexander Paul - 6 years, 11 months ago

As the charges are reversed the total mass and energy remain constant as it is.

Suman Paul - 6 years, 11 months ago

think again...the question does not say that only terms are changed,the question says that charges of e- and p+ are reversed. now a proton has two up quarks,each with a charge of +2/3 and a down quark with a charge of -1/3 . so if protons are to become negatively charged,the entire scenario will be different! any suggestions or improvements r most wlcm

Umang Mishra - 6 years, 11 months ago

I think the question didn't come up with the quantum physics, it's just classical physics.

Shubham Gaikwad - 6 years, 11 months ago

Positive & negative are just our assumptions.

Explanation:electron is the smallest unit of charge(q=e=1.6×10^-19,no +ve or -ve)and charge of proton is equal to the charge of electron.In 'matter', electrons are defined to have negative and protons are defined to have positive charge

The second confusion is about mass.if u read carefully, the ques. is about exchange of charge not mass.it concludes that nothing changes in the universe. If u find any mistake,comment...

RAMAN SAINI - 5 years, 4 months ago

The question requires more clarity, it says 'If electrons had positive charge', means electrons had positive charge (no change in mass), protons negative, so the positive charge particles (protons) being lesser in mass than negative charge particles (electrons), how would you expect the universe being stable?

Swapnil Roge - 5 years, 5 months ago

but electron flow causes the electricity that is found in the valence shell so how come there will be still flow of electricity if the charge of the outer orbit is positive?.,.

John Marc Bantolo - 6 years, 11 months ago

I think there will be a current composed of positive charges but with opposite in direction to the usual current

Mohamed Mousa - 6 years, 11 months ago

How about the strong electromagnetic force within the nucleus of atoms if we interchanged the charges of protons and electrons

Rindell Mabunga - 6 years, 11 months ago

Charges we can reverse but we know proton and electron have different mass so the structure will be changed of an atom and also their location within an atom that also matters now reversing the charges will do negative charge in the center surrounding with positive charge.

Nitin Chauhan - 6 years, 10 months ago

the question is incorrect as it is not practically possible because if you change the charges then you have to state new laws of magnetism as now in such case both

ATHARV GANGRADE - 6 years, 10 months ago

The right hand laws would change to left hand

Jerry McKenzie - 4 years, 2 months ago

Maitraya Kakade
Jul 17, 2014

i was thinking, how do we actually know that the electron has negative chrge and the proton has positive charge.certainly the charge on sub atomic particles was not decided by nature.it was assumed that the charge on electron is negative while that on proton is positive.so even if we would have assumed that the charge on electron is positive while that on proton is negative it would have not affected the nature of an atom because the magnitude of charge on both these particles is equal $1.6 \times 10^{-19} C$ i suppose)

now i m no big scientist and this is just my view of the solution.

You all must also consider the view that if electrons are protons and protons are electrons than negatively charged particles would be present in the nucleus. Would it not create any disturbance on neutrons as well as nucleus?

Kanishk Devgan - 4 years, 1 month ago

But that is a different question, the question here is only on the convention given to put a sign on each charge, it would be actually better if the electron had a positive change, some problems would be solve easier

Juan Pablo Calderón García - 2 years, 10 months ago

Michael Lee
Dec 6, 2014

Positive vs negative charge are just names for the opposite charges that we have given them. If they swapped, the charges would still be opposite of each other and hence, nothing would change other than our perception of their charges

Lucas Franceschi
Jul 29, 2014

The thing is it's not important who is positive and who is negative, the important thing is that they are opposites. That was our way of naming things, but it's just a way of representing the fact that they are opposites. If we were to invert both of the sides, then well, still opposites!

Ali Zargham Butt
Oct 9, 2014

simple.. your name has nothing to do with your destiny .. it is about how hard do you work

Agnishom Chattopadhyay
Jun 28, 2014

An antimatter world! Wow!

Proton resides inside the atom. How is this possible that there won't be any change.

Mashruk Anim - 6 years, 11 months ago

The problem states that only their charges would ne changed, not their masses. There shouldn't be any difference. Imagine an atom, with protons with negative charge, in the nucleus with the same mass thet they had before and an electron orbiting the nucleus with a positive charge. What would change? Nothing.

Gabriel Alves - 6 years, 11 months ago

I think the direction of current would be reversed.It would be from negative terminal to positive one.

Mohamed Mousa - 6 years, 11 months ago

Then dear sir, positive charges moving on the outer shells? How would chemical reactions take place? By the sharing of positive charges?

Mashruk Anim - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Mashruk Anim – Agree with you

Piyush Nahar - 6 years, 10 months ago

@Mashruk Anim – Positive & negative are just our assumptions.

Explanation:electron is the smallest unit of charge(q=e=1.6×10^-19,no +ve or -ve)and charge of proton is equal to the charge of electron.In 'matter', electrons are defined to have negative and protons are defined to have positive charge

The second confusion is about mass.if u read carefully, the ques. is about exchange of charge not mass.it concludes that nothing changes in the universe. If u find any mistake,comment...

RAMAN SAINI - 5 years, 4 months ago

There is a theory that antimatter galaxies and/or universes exist, but because they are so far away from ours, we have not destroyed each other. There is no way of telling from the starlight if a galaxy is composed of matter or antimatter.

Sophie Crane - 6 years, 11 months ago

Marcellus Wallace
Jan 4, 2019

While not entirely correct, "nothing" is still the best possible answer. Our universe is not charge symmetric, so there would be a lot of things working differently when you just exchange the charge of all particles. Our universe is considered to be CPT (charge, parity, time) symmetric. This means if you exchange the charge of all particles, change the parity of all particles and let time run in the opposite direction, then and only then, everything will be the same.

Muhammad Aqil
Apr 30, 2016

The net effect will remain same.so answer is nothing

Anuj Agarwal
Jan 23, 2016

If such a thing was to happen, we would call the electrons as protons and vice-versa………!!! Everthing is relative - Albert Einstein What's in a name? - William Shakespeare

Protons And Electrons Trading Places

9 solutions

Explanation:electron is the smallest unit of charge(q=e=1.6×10^-19,no +ve or -ve)and charge of proton is equal to the charge of electron.In 'matter', electrons are defined to have negative and protons are defined to have positive charge

Explanation:electron is the smallest unit of charge(q=e=1.6×10^-19,no +ve or -ve)and charge of proton is equal to the charge of electron.In 'matter', electrons are defined to have negative and protons are defined to have positive charge

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