What makes an electron “move” around an atom? Like what force actually propels it? What causes the motion?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.”