The classical electron radius is a combination of fundamental physical quantities that define a length scale for problems involving electrons interacting with electromagnetic radiation. According to modern understanding, the electron is a point particle with a point charge and no spatial extent. Attempts to model the electron as a non-point particle are considered ill-conceived and counter-pedagogic. Nevertheless, it is useful to define a length that arises in electron interactions in atomic-scale problems. The classical electron radius is given as (in SI units)
where and are the electric charge and the mass of the electron, is the speed of light, and is the permittivity of free space. This numerical value is several times larger than the radius of the proton.