Quick Chemistry No-Brainer

basilmarket.com forums : Chat | 8 posts archived

thread starter sandisku3 Sep 24 2010 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Either I didn't pay attention in class today or the teacher just missed it, I didn't hear him talk about anything related to these 2 problems on my homework. If someone can quickly help, that'd be awesome 1. What is wrong with saying "electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom"? Google didn't help me :P 2. What does the "Uncertainty Principle" tell us about electrons? Sites gave me complex descriptions I couldn't comprehend. I need a simple answer Thanks!

My Characters: CappedLock - 70 Bera Hunter

Montblanc 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Freakin' magnets, man

My Characters: Ultimate - 15 Scania Blade Recruit

sandisku3 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Huh :O

My Characters: CappedLock - 70 Bera Hunter

Ztarfish 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

1. I guess that orbit implies that electrons follow a set path around the nucleus whereas in reality they basically just exist everywhere and anywhere in an orbital in the nucleus, the orbitals don't necessarily have to be spherical. Eh that was a bad explanation and just a guess really. 2. Idk, something about electron spin and stuff i think.

My Characters: Oleophrantic - 30 Scania Blade Acolyte

BabysAreFood + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Electrons move around within orbitals which you can imagine to be like this . Obviously, this means that the electrons aren't moving around in fixed orbits. Another thing about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is that we can at best approximate the location of an electron in an orbital at a given time. We can't have an exact pinpoint of its location and there are times where the electron can be outside the orbitals since the orbitals are just approximations of the area the electron will LIKELY be in.

My Characters: MagicNarwhal - 46 Broa Thunder Breaker

sandisku3 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

[quote] BabysAreFood : Electrons move around within orbitals which you can imagine to be like this . Obviously, this means that the electrons aren't moving around in fixed orbits. Another thing about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is that we can at best approximate the location of an electron in an orbital at a given time. We can't have an exact pinpoint of its location and there are times where the electron can be outside the orbitals since the orbitals are just approximations of the area the electron will LIKELY be in. [/quote] Thanks! Is this all for Number #2?

My Characters: CappedLock - 70 Bera Hunter

tantiv 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Uncertainty principle refers to the Heisenburg uncertainty principle: You cannot know certain pairings of things such as momentum and position at the same time. This is because in order to figure one out, you would have to use some wave or light or something, which naturally changes the atom (or whatever you're studying) as it was, contaminating your environment. In fact, the more you know about one, the less you can know about the other. This applies to everything, but is only noticeable at the quantum level.

My Characters: sangrinebond - 22 Bellocan Rogue

Abba26 09/24/10 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

1. The answer your teacher is looking for could be many things. For starters, no one knows exactly how electrons work. Sometimes they act as particles and sometimes they act as waves. The closest we can come to an actual description is that there are actually "electron clouds" that surround the nucleus. It sounds weird but electrons actually exist everywhere in their specific orbits. Hopefully this is what your prof is asking for. 2. The Uncertainty Principle says that you can never know both the position and momentum(or velocity, they are related) of a particle simultaneously. Any observation you make to find the electron's position will change its momentum and vice versa. Extra info(your prof might want this too): There is something called the "Pauli Exclusion Principle" that says that no 2 electrons can be in the same state at once. This usually applies to electron spin. If you have two otherwise identical electrons, one must have "spin up" and the other must have "spin down". Hope this helps.

My Characters: Abba26 - 184 Broa Marksman