/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12525535

>>10075270
Finally a practical use for big dog.

>>8192493
>What does the 3-D surface represent?
They are isoprobability surfaces. The interpretation of the electron wavefunction (essentially what orbitals describe) is that the magnitude squared is equal to the probability density of finding an electron at a point in space. To find the probability of finding an electron within a volume, you integrate the probability density.

It is difficult to visualize 3D fields, so usually peeps pick a certain value and plot it's surface to get an idea of the shape of the field. That's what you see in your plots.

> And what is meant by the opposite lobe of a p-orbital having this "negative" potential
I think what people are trying to draw attention to is that the phase of the opposite sides of orbitals is opposite. When you square a single orbital, this "feature" cancels out and you get the shapes you see in your figure ignoring colors. However, when an electron's state is a combination of orbitals, the phase of the complex-valued wavefunction dictates how the orbitals interfere (be it constructive or destructive) with each other.

>Also, e.g. for s-orbitals the density seems to peak at the nucleon location -- is it actually possible to find an electron right in the middle of the nucleus?
Absolutely, although if you only integrate over a single point, the probability that you'll find an electron is 0.

In the world of quantum mechanics, the only thing not allowed for the family of ferimions (which electrons and nucleons are members of) is that no two fermions can share the same quantum state (read quantum numbers). Otherwise their is no notion of "solid" in the sense that things can occupy the same space. The quantum world is very ghostly in that respect. So how does an atom support itself? Reread the first sentence in this paragraph; for electrons this is called the Pauli exclusion principle, but it applies to fermions in general.

>Finally how do energy levels modulate each orbital type?
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