Logged out
Access All our Essays in an Instant
Swap your work for FREE access, or pay £4.99 for instant access
What is an atomic orbital?
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Wed Jan 26 2005
Page Preview
On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:
ATOMIC ORBITALS What is an atomic orbital? Orbitals and orbits When the a planet moves around the sun, you can plot a definite path for it which is called an orbit. A simple view of the atom looks similar and you may have pictured the electrons as orbiting around the nucleus. The truth is different, and electrons in fact inhabit regions of space known as orbitals. Orbits and orbitals sound similar, but they have quite different meanings. It is essential that you understand the difference between them. The impossibility of drawing orbits for electrons To plot a path for something you need to know exactly where the object is and be able to work out exactly where it's going to be an instant later. You can't do this for electrons. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (not required at A'level) says - loosely - that you can't know with certainty both where an electron is and where it's going...
To see the full version of this document, and 144,904 others
