Trapping an individual electron makes precise measurements of its properties possible. The discussion connects the Penning trap to experimental tests of quantum electrodynamics.
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48:37our special July 4th episode. Moving on to the isolation of a single electron. Yeah. When we talk about how good physics is at describing the world, I've told you about this 12 decimal place, right? that we can describe the electron down to 12 decimal places with quantum electronamics. Well, what that means is we've measured something right about the electron down to 12 decimal places. In this case, the gyromagnetic ratio. Um, in order to do that, we need to single out individual electrons and measure that thing. This is how we did it. physicist Hans Demelt. He successfully isolated and trapped a single electron
49:18using a penning trap, which is this really fancy like way of spinning around magnetic fields and electric fields to isolate a single electron there at the University of Washington in Seattle. And it's a breakthrough that allowed us to do that ultra precise testing of quantum electronamics. It's a triumph of physics earned him the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics. And >> he should get a prize for that incredible facial hair. That is fantastic. Those chops. >> Oh yeah.