Bro, I got some wool, a balloon, and a copper wire.
Make your best offer. Starting price $1 for 58 electrons.
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
15 points (89.5% liked)
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Sweet! Let me just... mumble mumble 6.241509×10^18^ divided by 58 mumble mumble $107,612,224,137,931,034.4827586207 for 1 amp? You're gonna go bankrupt YESTERDAY. Just out of pity, let me give you $1 for 50 electrons?
there is empirical series of materials sorted from which one is most likely to lose vs gain electrons, but what exactly happens is one of unsolved problems in physics
Here's a link to an article talking about it, including a small list of materials and if they will lose or gain electrons. I found that with a quick search, more or better ones can be found, I'm sure. I chose this one because it has the split between gain and loss, which others don't.
Edit: working link
I think you linked another website on accident.
One of those times where losing and loosing are both arguably correct.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed that amusing Schrödinger’s misspelling.
Aah shet. I'm not a native speaker. 😂
The short answer is, to "lose" means to have lost something (e.g. "Did you lose your keys?", but in this case it's electrons) while to "loose" is used to describe getting something to be able to move freely / unstuck (which could arguably be used to describe the loss of electrons in a material, since you're rubbing them loose)
So both spellings can work :D
And the messed up thing is they both are pronounced opposite to the spelling.
You'd thing "loose" would have the longer O sound, but "lose" does. 🤦
English really is a funny language
To be fair, they both have the same root origin. Even native speakers get it wrong often.
It’s particularly amusing because this is a very rare example of when either spelling (two different words) could be correct in this context without changing the overall meaning of the sentence at all.
Does it depend on which one has more or less loose valence electrons?
I think that's a reasonable rule of thumb to start from, but like most things in physics it's not guaranteed and is rarely exactly that simple.