Breakfast With Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects by Chad Orzel

Author:Chad Orzel [Orzel, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science, Physics, Quantum Theory, Atomic & Molecular
ISBN: 9781946885357
Google: ZcIrswEACAAJ
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 2018-11-15T23:20:59.949953+00:00

Probability distributions for some selected (n, l, m) states for an electron in hydrogen, showing the effects of changing the angular momentum quantum numbers: increasing the value of l gives a pattern with more nodes, while increasing m rotates the pattern. Images are two-dimensional slices through the probability distribution; brighter white indicates higher probability.

Unlike the original Bohr model with electrons orbiting along a plane, though, or the tilted orbits of the different m values in the Bohr-Sommerfeld model, the orbitals calculated from the Schrödinger equation are intrinsically three-dimensional. While the different values of l and m don’t have different energies, they do profoundly alter the distribution of the electron in space, as seen in the figure. This provides the last piece needed to understand the structure of molecules. These electron distributions determine the shape and vibrations of molecules, which in turn determine just about everything else about them. The four bonds formed by carbon, for instance, naturally arrange themselves at the corners of a tetrahedron, leading to the three-dimensional structure of many organic molecules. The two bonds formed in oxygen lie in a plane, separated by an angle of about 104 degrees, producing the characteristic chevron shape of water molecules, which is essential to many of its chemical properties, including the unusual fact that water expands when it freezes.

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