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Monday, 16 November 2009 07:45 |
- wave interpretation requires a statistical or probability mathematical description of the position of a particle
- where wave represents the probability of finding the particle at a particular point
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The idea that an electron is a wave around the atom, instead of a particle in orbit begs the question of `where' the electron is at any particular moment. The answer, by experimentation, is that the electron can be anywhere around the atom. But 'where' is not evenly distributed. The electron as a wave has a maximum chance of being observed where the wave has the highest amplitude. Thus, the electron has the highest probability to exist at a certain orbit.
Where probability is often used in physics to describe the behavior of many objects, this is the first instance of an individual object, an electron, being assigned a probability for a Newtonian characteristic such as position. Thus, an accurate description of an electron orbit is one where we have a probability field that surrounds the nucleus, as shown below:
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- for higher orbits the probability field becomes distorted
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For more complicated orbits, and higher electron shells, the probability field becomes distorted by other electrons and their fields, like the following example:
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- meaning of existence has an elusive nature in the quantum world
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Thus, for the first time, the concept of existence begins to take on an elusive character at the subatomic level. |
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