Public Health Sanitarian Practice Test

An electron is a subatomic particle that carries a fundamental charge, which is negative. This negative charge is essential to the structure of atoms and influences how atoms interact with one another. In an atom, electrons are found in the outer regions surrounding the nucleus, which contains positively charged protons and neutral neutrons. The negative charge of electrons balances the positive charge from protons, enabling the formation of stable atoms and the creation of chemical bonds.

Furthermore, the nature of an electron's charge is fixed and does not vary; it is consistently defined as negative across all known physical interactions. Understanding the negative charge of an electron is fundamental in fields such as chemistry and physics, as it dictates electric forces, the behavior of electricity, and various phenomena related to electromagnetic interactions.