What is the color of the electron?

Question

What is the color of the electron?

Answer 1

An electron doesn't have a color. Since color is waves with a wavelength in the visible range, and the wavelength of electrons is extremely small (far smaller than visible waves,) then it follows that an electron does not have color.

Note: Bonds are what determine the colors you see. Since bonds are electronic is nature, sure you could b.s. your way into saying that electrons have a color, but it won't be correct. Example: carbon tetrachloride is colorless, but chlorine gas is yellowish and carbon (graphite) is the color of pencil lead. So why is CCl(4) colorless when its components have color?

It's the bonds between the carbon and the chlorine that determine the color (if there is any) because different bond motions result in different colors.

This is a good page to help you understand where color comes from, and why one electron does not have color:

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor...

Answer 2

All colors.  The electron can be "tuned" to absorb or emit any wavelength of light.  Of course, all colors also means no specific color.

The potential field that the electron is "trapped" in determines its color.

When it is an atom or molecule that is doing the trapping, then the electron takes on the color that is characteristic of that material.

A free electron can absorb any wavelength, so an electron needs to be confined to have a (specific) color.  Perhaps you could say a free electron is black,

Electrons are what make all the colors we see, so don't let the other bozo's tell you they don't have color.

Answer 3

Electrons do not have color since they don't reflect light. They may sometimes *emit* light, whose wavelength (and therefore color) will depend on the energy (?) of the emission.

But they travel at wavelengths similar to X-rays.