electron volt
nounDefinition of electron volt
: a unit of energy equal to the energy gained by an electron in passing from a point of low potential to a point one volt higher in potential : 1.60 × 10−19 joule
Examples of electron volt in a Sentence
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But at less than 1 electron volt, the putative MiniBooNE sterile neutrino lacks the heft for these other purposes. — Quanta Magazine, "Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle," 1 June 2018 This slow-moving X boson, which has a mass of 16.7 million electron volts (MeV), splits into an electron-positron pair. — Quanta Magazine, "Evidence of a ‘Fifth Force’ Faces Scrutiny," 7 June 2016 Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays surpass 1 exa-electron volt (EeV). — Quanta Magazine, "The Particle That Broke a Cosmic Speed Limit," 14 May 2015 The neutrino that set off the alarm in 2017 had an energy of some 300 trillion electron volts, by the units of energy and mass that physicists prefer. — Dennis Overbye, New York Times, "It Came From a Black Hole, and Landed in Antarctica," 12 July 2018 IceCube researchers eliminate those using a variety of methods, leaving the very few, very high energy neutrinos, above 30 trillion electron volts (TeV). — Daniel Clery, Science | AAAS, "Ghostly particle caught in polar ice ushers in new way to look at the universe," 12 July 2018 During the last solar minimum, from 2008 to 2009, Fermi detected eight high-energy gamma rays (each with energies greater than 100 giga–electron volts, or GeV) emitted by the sun. — Shannon Hall, Scientific American, "The Sun Is Spitting Out Strange Patterns of Gamma Rays—and No One Knows Why," 28 Mar. 2018 For the neutron to decay into a dark particle, for instance, that particle must be lighter than the neutron’s mass of around 940 MeV/c2 (mega–electron volts divided by the speed of light squared). — Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, "Missing Neutrons May Lead a Secret Life as Dark Matter," 29 Jan. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'electron volt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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