So an electron ‘moves’ around the nucleus of an atom. But what causes this motion? Is it just eternal inertia since the atoms founding?
And I don’t mean when elections change levels, I mean the actual motion of the revolution around the nucleus of the atom.
Thanks!
In: Physics
The electron is not a little marble flying in a circle around some bigger marbles in the nucleus. It’s not like a solid particle at all and it doesn’t move like one.
The electron actually exists in a sort of quasi-probability cloud of all the places it COULD be
Quantum is weird.
So the answer, at least partially is “it doesn’t”.
Electrons, like most particles, do not exist in any single point in space. That’s because they have wave properties too, it’s not just light.
The only thing that happens in a specific point in space is an interaction between particles. Otherwise they’re everywhere they CAN be, at the same time.
In the case of electrons around atoms, where they can be is in specific regions of space around the nucleus, their shape determined by the energy orbital they’re in.
The way most physicists understand it now, ‘motion’ is maybe not exactly the right word for what electrons are doing when they occupy orbitals in atoms. They sort of exist everywhere in the whole space at once, and their position and velocity have probabilistic values. It’s very weird.
More generally, and maybe disappointingly, there aren’t a lot of very satisfying, intuitive eli5-style answers for the “why/what causes it” questions, when you get down to the teeny-tiny things in quantum physics. The answer to those questions in modern physics usually just boils down to “because this mathematical model SAYS that’s what should happen.”
This type of conversation always confuses me too. Not a quantum example, but if I say: you can know that I’m in my house because my car is outside and you saw me walk in. There is some statistical value that represents any particular area of my house I currently occupy but you can’t say where with any detail. However, if you look in the window, you can observe where I am at that point in time. However, if I was there before you looked, how does that change anything?
They actually don’t move the way you described it. It’s even weirder because the Bohr model, you’re referring to is just an aproxomation of the reality. Nowadays we know that atoms and electrons aren’t marbles that fly around each other.
that is a pretty logical question
keep in mind that physics is only trying to describe whatever exists, physics does not define it
So for that people are building some models for understanding, which sometimes are correct up until some point. For example i’m pretty sure that you’ve been told that earth orbits the sun and until you do some space research regarding second or third cosmic velocities you don’t care that the rotation is not circular, but eliptic
same here, to understand the answer to your question, just stop treating an electron as an apple – at this point, for your mental model, electron is a wave
ELI5 comparison: imaging throwing the lure (hook) of a fishing rod into the water. The hook will be your (comparably motionless) nucleus, and the disturbance on water in all directions is your electron – it exists everywhere around the atom.
—– more physics —–
Electron is a function of probability of finding it – the abovementioned wave created is what defines the probability. So in places where that wave has higher magnitude the probability of finding the electron is high.
Happy quantization!!
As other pointed out, there’s no revolution around the nucleus. Atom doesn’t look like a small solar system, that’s an old misconception.
They’re more similar to clouds, or spheres of smoke
Centripetal force caused by the attraction between the positive nucleus and the negative electron.
Test this out yourself by tying an object to a string and spinning it. The tension in the string pulls the object to the middle, but the motion of the object keeps it spinning in a circle.
Latest Answers