Gigaelectronvolt (GeV)
One billion electronvolts. The scale of particle accelerators; the proton mass is about 0.938 GeV/c².
1 gigaelectronvolt = 1.602176634×10⁻¹⁰ joules (exactly).
About the gigaelectronvolt
Accelerators brought this unit into use. Older documents wrote BeV for billion electronvolts, and the Bevatron at Berkeley, which began operating in 1954 and reached a maximum of 13 GeV, took its name from the idea. Creating antiprotons there needed a proton beam of about 6.2 GeV, and the antiproton was found in 1955. The modern symbol GeV equals 1.602176634 x 10^-10 J.
Masses of heavy particles are quoted in GeV/c squared. A proton is about 0.938 GeV/c squared, and the Higgs boson, announced on 4 July 2012 at CERN, has a mass near 125 GeV, about 133 times the proton. At the Large Hadron Collider each proton beam reached 6.5 TeV in 2015, which is 6,500 GeV. The step above is the TeV, a thousand GeV, so the GeV sits in the middle of the energy range of high-energy physics.
Sources: Wikipedia: Bevatron; Wikipedia: Large Hadron Collider; Wikipedia: Electronvolt; Wikipedia: Proton
Gigaelectronvolt conversion chart
1 gigaelectronvolt expressed in every other energy unit:
| Unit | 1 gigaelectronvolt |
|---|---|
| Joules | 1.602176634×10⁻¹⁰ |
| Kilojoules | 1.602176634×10⁻¹³ |
| Watt-hours | 4.45049065×10⁻¹⁴ |
| Kilowatt-hours | 4.45049065×10⁻¹⁷ |
| British Thermal Units | 1.518570443×10⁻¹³ |
| Calories | 3.829294058×10⁻¹¹ |
| Kilocalories | 3.829294058×10⁻¹⁴ |
| Megajoules | 1.602176634×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Gigajoules | 1.602176634×10⁻¹⁹ |
| Megawatt-hours | 4.45049065×10⁻²⁰ |
| Foot-pounds | 1.181704842×10⁻¹⁰ |
| Millijoules | 1.602176634×10⁻⁷ |
| Electronvolts | 1,000,000,000 |
| Kiloelectronvolts | 1,000,000 |
| Megaelectronvolts | 1,000 |
| Tons Of TNT | 3.829294058×10⁻²⁰ |
| Tonnes Of Oil Equivalent | 3.826733147×10⁻²¹ |
| Therms | 1.518933028×10⁻¹⁸ |
| Quads | 1.518570443×10⁻²⁸ |
| Ergs | 0.001602176634 |
| Calories (IT) | 3.826733147×10⁻¹¹ |
| Kilogram-force Meters | 1.63376549×10⁻¹¹ |
| Horsepower-hours | 5.968206271×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Liter-atmospheres | 1.581225397×10⁻¹² |
More Scientific units
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- kilocalorie (energy)
- electronvolt (energy)
- kiloelectronvolt (energy)
- megaelectronvolt (energy)
- calorie (IT) (energy)
- liter-atmosphere (energy)
- ton of TNT (energy)
- femtometer (length)
- angstrom (length)
- dalton (weight & mass)
- cubic kilometer (volume)
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- degree Rankine (temperature)
- degree Newton (temperature)
- picosecond (time)
Browse all energy units.