Mass-to-charge ratio used as its unit in the field of mass spectrometry. Some fields use the charge-to-mass ratio ("Q"/"m") instead, which is the multiplicative inverse of the mass-to-charge ratio. The 2014 CODATA recommended value for an electron is = . When charged particles move in electric and magnetic fields the following two laws apply: where F is the force applied to the ion, "m" is the mass of the particle, a is the acceleration, "Q" is the electric charge, E is the electric field, and v × B is the cross product of the ion's velocity and the magnetic flux density. This
Charge radius customary when charge radius takes an imaginary numbered value to report the negative valued square of the charge radius, rather than the charge radius itself, for a particle. The best known particle with a negative squared charge radius is the neutron. The heuristic explanation for why the squared charge radius of a neutron is negative, despite its overall neutral electric charge, is that this is the case because its negatively charged down quarks are, on average, located in the outer part of the neutron, while its positively charged up quark is, on average, located towards the center of the neutron.