Question

What does it mean that the electric charge is quantized?

Answer 1

I have always liked the definition `"quantum"-="packet"`...

Explanation:

And so electric charge is `"quantized"`...it arises from the presence of EXTRA electrons (in anions), or from the absence of electrons in CATIONS. The electronic charge is crucial, because this is the only charge we can change given the NUCLEAR definition of atomic number.

And one electron has a charge of `-1.602xx10^-19*C`...and so individual charged ions can have PACKETS of this CHARGE subtracted to give a CATION, or ADDED to give an anion.. Are you with me?

And if we got a mole of anions....then we have an electrostatic charge of...

`-1.602xx10^-19*Cxx6.022xx10^23*mol^-1-=96472.4*C*mol^-1`

...and this of course is old Faraday's constant...which was approached experimentally BEFORE the conception of electrons and moles...