Question

what happens to an electron and proton placed in an electromagnetic field?

Answer 1

When electrons and protons are placed in an electromagnetic field the electron travels towards the positive pole or the positive terminal and the proton travels towards the negative pole or negative terminal.

Answer 2

i mean when placed in the path of an em wave...ie consider uv rays falling on a free e and p...

Answer 3

it may be one of the there interactions between particles and electromagnetic waves
1. photoelectric effect ( the particles inside the material )
2. Compton scattering (in the case of free particles)
3. pair production

Answer 4

when UV ray fall on electron or proton, a collision will take place between photon of UV ray and electron/proton, and transfer of energy and momentum will take place.

Answer 5

They will oscillate, of course, in response to the oscillating eletric fields of the EM wave. That will generate in turn an oscillation in the field that each one of them generates naturally, which will, other things being equal, result in the emission of another EM wave, the frequency of which will generally be related to the natural period of oscillation of the system.

From the point of view of distant observers, what has happened is that some portion of the incoming EM wave has been scattered, both in direction and in frequency.

Answer 6

i asked the same question to a friend of mine.he says that the electron will move along the direction of electric field component in the em wave.is he rong then?

Answer 7

Not at all. But the direction of the electric field oscillates with the frequency of the EM wave, so the direction of motion of the electron will oscillate, too. For example, assume the EM wave is a 14 MHz wave linearly polarized along the x axis. (It would be traveling along the z axis.) Let the electron be at the origin. The electron will feel an electric force that oscillates from strongly along the +x axis to strongly along the -x axis and back again, 14,000,000 times a second. So it will start accelerating in the +x direction, ready some steady speed, then start decelerating, come to rest, then start accelerating in the -x direction, reach a steady speed, slow down, come to rest, and so forth.