This would have to be done with no air
between the plates, otherwise the electron would bump into the the
nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air and lose energy through these
collisions. One eV is a very small amount of energy. Lets
compare it to a more familiar unit, the Calorie. Note the big
"C",
this is because what most people think of when the say
calorie, as it relates to their
diet, is really 1000 calories, the scientific unit of energy. 1
(diet) Calorie = 1000 calories = 1 kilocalorie. To avoid thoughts
of food, I'll use kilocalories ... so let's compare eVs to
kilocalories...
1 eV = .000000000000000000000383 kilocalories or more succinctly 3.83 x
10
-23 kilocalories
This makes eV's look pretty feeble compared to the energy units we
commonly use.
In everyday use though, again for example, with food, or an air
conditioner, and so on, we are used to dealing with large objects
composed of many. many small particles. For a single very small
particle to have 1 eV, that is actually a
pretty large amount
of energy. We perceive objects as warm or cold because of the
kinetic energy of their constituent particles. When you
heat
something up, you are usually giving the atoms and molecules that make
the object up more kinetic energy. Under normal conditions, like
in a room or an office, the individual gas molecules that make up the
air are each zipping about with 0.04 eV of kinetic energy. If
each particle had 1 eV of kinetic energy the room would feel about
10,000
degrees! ALS electrons don't have 1 eV, they each have
1,900,000,000 eV (1.9 GeV) of energy.