The charge of an electron

1. It is well known that the ratio ofhc toe 2 is a pure number. The methods of macroscopic physics break up the number and scatter its factors, so that it strikes us as an artificial construction and its dimensionless character seems an irrelevant curiosity. But in the wave-theory of the interaction of electrons the number is kept intact. Since electric charge is only manifested in the interaction of at least two charges it is useless to consider a solitary electron. The most elementary appearance ofe in physics is in the wave-equation for two electrons (or an electron and proton); it there occurs in the combinationhc /2πe 2 as the coefficient of certain terms. The experimental value ofhc /2πe 2 is 137∙1 (Millikan’s data). According to the theory proposed in this paper it should be the integer 136. Although the discrepancy is about three times the probable error attributed to the experimental value, I cannot persuade myself that the fault lies with the theory. The basis of my argument is the Exclusion Principle in the form given by Fermi and Dirac, viz., that the ψ functions pertaining to a pair of electrons must be antisymmetrical. Combined with the theory of relativity, this appears to lead in an unforced manner to the value 136, viz., the number of symmetrical terms in an array of 16 rows and columns.