Effective Mass

Value of mass one must use to model electron behavior in solids as the motion of independent particles. The motion of the electrons is very interconnected and complicated, yet can be successfully described by treating each conductionTransfer of heat as a result of collisions between molecules; when one end of an object is heated or excited, the molecules vibrate faster and their energy is transferred sequentially to their neighbors. electron as an independent particle with an “effective mass” determined by experiment and characteristic of a material. Typically the effective mass is less than the mass of an electron in free space (9.11 × 10^-31 kg).