Do electrons exist?

[Smaug]

Recently I took a class at university called “Systems analysis”, and that was when I fully realized everything we create is a model around a system. So, based on experiments, we know “something” exists, and based on the properties we describe it, and give it a name. So we have electrons. But even though we describe them, we don’t really know what they are. Which as a scientist and future researcher, this is a scary idea because how can I think about the behavior of things I can’t see? Almost any hypothesis is valid since I am free to imagine whatever model I want. How do I know I am on the right track when working with forces I can’t see?

Take the duality of light for example. We created 2 models (waves and photons) of this phenomenon. Not because the light actually behaves differently depending on the situation, but because the models complement each other, meaning that they are incomplete individually.

We humans don’t really fully understand anything, we just grasp things using mathematical models, which are often incomplete. It’s somewhat scary.

Science cannot reach 'full understanding' of anything or lead us to any kind of 'complete final truth'. At least it's how it is up to date. The best we can do is to create better models of observable phenomena and to understand how to choose a proper model depending on the conditions.

Since no model can be 'complete' an important task is to figure out its limitations. For the more general models (large theories) it's a complicated and informal process, a source of greatest advances in science. A classical example is how limitations for Rational Mechanics were figured out, i. e. how it was proven incorrect for strong gravitational fields or high velocities and for atomic-scale objects and interactions. This did not make Newton's Mechanics completely obsolete though. It still has a very wide area of applicability.

For the more specialized models some of the limitations are made clear form the problem definition. For example there's generally no need to invoke Quantum Mechanics if you're task is to study orbital motion of satellite around a planet. Other limitations can be figured out using certain formal methods. For example if you created a model of satellite's orbital motion Stability Theory allows to assess if this motion remains close to the initial shape for a given period of time.

Models are just different ways of looking at physical objects or phenomena. Each model highlights certain properties of an object but no model is equal to the object it imitates. Speaking of electron, it's key difference is that there's no 'intuitive model' for it since this object is outside of human range of senses. The only way to 'see' it is through a specially set experiment. It's not only elementary particles which get 'unintuitive'. A 'simple' gyroscope can move in certain ways that are not intuitively expected by great many of people.