Sorry for the stupid question guys. im not the best in science.
In: Chemistry
I know that’s the common image presented, but they actually don’t revolve around the nucleus.
Let’s start with some actual basics. Electrons are bound to the nucleus because the nucleus is positively charged and electrons are negatively charged. It is genuinely just electrostatic attraction.
Here’s where the easy ends. Electrons don’t exist as a little ball zipping around. They have wave properties which dictate where you can or cannot find an electron.
What happens around the nucleus is that this electron wave will interfere with itself, and cancel out to zero in some places and reinforce in others.
Where it’s zero, you can’t find an electron. Where it’s not zero, you can. The places where you can find them are called “orbitals”.
But don’t let the name fool you, they’re still not like orbits of planets. They have different shapes, like a ball, kind of like a bowtie, a doughnut. And they’ll change shapes depending on bonding with other atoms. It’s quite a complex topic.
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