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A Science Post
Dec. 11th, 2008 06:51 pmBecause ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rtydmartel asked for this. If you are not interested in Science!, skip to the end and you can have some Haunted Past instead.
This is about orbitals and quantum, but I am going to do my best to avoid the quantum because it is complicated three dimensional integraty math and makes my head hurt. Instead, I will start with a short review.
Electrons still hate each other. They will never not hate each other.
Electrons will move to so that they have the lowest possible energy. If a position of lower energy becomes available, that's where any given electron will go. Sometimes, this means moving in with another electron, but the desire to have less energy overrides the other-electron-hating.
On a very, very tiny scale, adding more energy to something pretty much always means it is moving more. You can add the energy in whatever way you want. It translates into more motion.
Review done. Simplified model time*.
Pretend that atoms are only 2D, and you are looking down at one from above, with a bird's-eye view. You have an electron orbiting the nucleus at a certain distance. It has an angular velocity, which is how many times it goes around the circle per second, and a tangential velocity, which is how fast it would be moving if it were moving in a line.
Now, drop another electron farther out. It's orbiting at the same angular velocity - moving around the nucleus the same number of times per second. But because the circumference of the outer circle is larger than that of the inner circle, the tangential velocity is much faster. It has to cover that larger circumference in the same amount of time, after all.
Electrons like to have a fairly constant angular velocity. If you add energy (which means making them move faster), they will move farther out from the nucleus. That way, even though it is moving faster, it will have the same angular velocity. Remember, though, electrons move to the lowest possible energy. This means that most of the time they will be moving as slowly as possible. They will give up energy and move closer to the nucleus to do so. Electrons are lazy-ass bitches.
Scientists, for some reason, decided to give the tangential velocity a number. They call this the principal quantum number, but because they are lazy, they write it as "n". Principal quantum number = n. Higher principal quantum number = higher n = more energy = more motion. It is all the same.
Finally, understand that n is always an integer. The energy of an electron has certain values. It can't have any other values. If you try to add energy to electrons to get them to jump to a higher n, they will not unless you are adding exactly the right amount of energy. If you add too little - nothing. If you add too much, also nothing. The fact that the can have some values of energy but not others is called "quantum" because they can only have certain quantities of energy.
Hmm, this topic is turning out to be larger than expected. I will cover subshells tomorrow. Please give feedback if this is too confusing, as well as what I can do to make it better.
Now, I bleeve I promised Haunted Past.
Title: Doves
Fandom: Danny Phantom. I have never and will never see a cent.
Rating: Actually it's totally safe for all ages
Warnings: This is actually sweet, in a very Haunted Past kind of way.
( How Far Would You Go? )
That happens right after Dan finally comes to his senses. Danny doesn't come down for a while.
*Very simplified. I'm just using this model because it makes sense to our fragile human brains. It has almost nothing to do with the way that real electrons behave. But it's a good thought model for learning the concept, as long as you keep in mind that none of it is true.
rtydmartel asked for this. If you are not interested in Science!, skip to the end and you can have some Haunted Past instead.This is about orbitals and quantum, but I am going to do my best to avoid the quantum because it is complicated three dimensional integraty math and makes my head hurt. Instead, I will start with a short review.
Electrons still hate each other. They will never not hate each other.
Electrons will move to so that they have the lowest possible energy. If a position of lower energy becomes available, that's where any given electron will go. Sometimes, this means moving in with another electron, but the desire to have less energy overrides the other-electron-hating.
On a very, very tiny scale, adding more energy to something pretty much always means it is moving more. You can add the energy in whatever way you want. It translates into more motion.
Review done. Simplified model time*.
Pretend that atoms are only 2D, and you are looking down at one from above, with a bird's-eye view. You have an electron orbiting the nucleus at a certain distance. It has an angular velocity, which is how many times it goes around the circle per second, and a tangential velocity, which is how fast it would be moving if it were moving in a line.
Now, drop another electron farther out. It's orbiting at the same angular velocity - moving around the nucleus the same number of times per second. But because the circumference of the outer circle is larger than that of the inner circle, the tangential velocity is much faster. It has to cover that larger circumference in the same amount of time, after all.
Electrons like to have a fairly constant angular velocity. If you add energy (which means making them move faster), they will move farther out from the nucleus. That way, even though it is moving faster, it will have the same angular velocity. Remember, though, electrons move to the lowest possible energy. This means that most of the time they will be moving as slowly as possible. They will give up energy and move closer to the nucleus to do so. Electrons are lazy-ass bitches.
Scientists, for some reason, decided to give the tangential velocity a number. They call this the principal quantum number, but because they are lazy, they write it as "n". Principal quantum number = n. Higher principal quantum number = higher n = more energy = more motion. It is all the same.
Finally, understand that n is always an integer. The energy of an electron has certain values. It can't have any other values. If you try to add energy to electrons to get them to jump to a higher n, they will not unless you are adding exactly the right amount of energy. If you add too little - nothing. If you add too much, also nothing. The fact that the can have some values of energy but not others is called "quantum" because they can only have certain quantities of energy.
Hmm, this topic is turning out to be larger than expected. I will cover subshells tomorrow. Please give feedback if this is too confusing, as well as what I can do to make it better.
Now, I bleeve I promised Haunted Past.
Title: Doves
Fandom: Danny Phantom. I have never and will never see a cent.
Rating: Actually it's totally safe for all ages
Warnings: This is actually sweet, in a very Haunted Past kind of way.
( How Far Would You Go? )
That happens right after Dan finally comes to his senses. Danny doesn't come down for a while.
*Very simplified. I'm just using this model because it makes sense to our fragile human brains. It has almost nothing to do with the way that real electrons behave. But it's a good thought model for learning the concept, as long as you keep in mind that none of it is true.
