Comment He must have failed both Modern Physics (Score 1) 243
The guy just plugged some number in to an equation, and got an answer. The trick in Modern Physics is to know which law/equation applies in each problem. The mass of an electron is 9.11x10^-31 kg. It does not get heavier. If an electron is traveling near the speed of light, it's "effective mass", m*, increases. Effective mass is lumping gamma (c/sqrt(c^2-v^2)) in with the rest mass m (m* == gamma*rest_mass). Furthermore, both the "1" state and "0" state must be stable for storage, so the higher energy electron would have more potential energy than the lower state. It does not have more mass.