Charge is independent of mass?

Question

But how does physics explain that something much more massive than an electron, like a proton, has an equal in magnitude charge as the electron?

Answer 1

In electrostatics charge is measured in Coulombs.
The charge of a free electron is the same as a free proton. It has been experimentally measured that way.
It means that charge is electrostatic energy.The charge varies inside the atom.
HOwever the electron and proton may share the same electrostatic gravitational energy inside the Atom.
If the masses of the electron or proton changes ,their velocities will change accordingly in order to maintain equilibrium rotational energy the same.
Is charge independent of mass? Not really. The reason is that both mass and velocity of a moving mass are both parameters of what defines energy.Since a coulomb is a unit of electrostatic energy, it is both dependent on the mass of the atomic particle and its velocity square.
For the same energy of motion(charge), the electron moves faster than the Proton.

Answer 2

Short answer: it doesn't.

The masses of the fundamental particles like electrons and quarks (which make up protons) are pretty much free parameters in the standard model. That means that theoretically, they could be anything. We determine what they actually are by experiment.

Repeat of short answer: there really is no explanation.

PS: As a bonus I'll answer enord even though he should ask his question as a separate question. The proton and electron will attract each other. They exert equal force on one another, but the electron moves more because it's less massive (like the earth moves more than the sun even though they exert equal forces on one another).

Answer 3

This can be explained by the fact that the proton decays into electrons and positrons. Each of said particles have the same mass, but opposite charge. Thus, paired, they would have no net charge.
If several pairs were put together, their mass would equal that of the proton. There would have to be an extra positron to account or the proton's +1 charge, however.

Answer 4

He's sort of right. Protons are made up of 2 types of quarks and quarks have fractional charges. This set of quarks' charges add up to +1 (electron is -1). One type of quark is pretty massive compared with the others, so that's why a proton has lots of mass compared with an electron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton

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Answer 5

Because it's what they're made of. Protons are made of quarks - three of them, in fact. So a proton consists of three particles (well, six, if you count the gluons that hold the proton together). Electrons, however, are a one-particle kajigger. So they weigh much less.

Charge IS independent of mass. Otherwise you'd have a different electrical charge than your coffee mug.

Answer 6

What if you put a proton and an electron in an isolated chamber. They would attract and thus race towards each other but would they meet exactly halfway? Or would the Mass have an effect?

Answer 7

The proton is a positron and a neutron composite particle(positron having same charge but opposite sign of an electron)


Somebody let me know if this is close to correct, disregarding quarks and stuff.

Answer 8

charge never depends on mass, check Maxwell's. I think the surface area plays a major role in determining the magnitude of the particle's charge.