Re:Orbits and orbitals (2006)
by blackholesRhot on Saturday January 12, 2019 @05:35PM
(#18893708)
These concepts make more sense after one has been exposed to quantum mechanics. One of the first things you do in an intro to quantum mechanics class is calculate the energy levels of a Hydrogen atom (and then Helium.) Chemistry is literally applied quantum mechanics; and everything in quantum mechanics is probabilistic. A more accurate picture of an orbital is that it’s an energy level where a cloud of probability mass lives that corresponds to, if one were to take a photograph of the atom, the likelihood of finding an electron in any given location (wave function collapse.) But before a measurement, the electron really was a cloud of probability mass.
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Re:Orbits and orbitals (2006)
by throwawaymath on Saturday January 12, 2019 @07:16PM
(#18894113)
Many things become more intuitive after you've been exposed to quantum mechanics, but that's trading one learning curve for another one (and a significantly steeper, albeit more generalizable one). If you already have familiarity with quantum mechanics then what you're explaining is useful. But if you don't, it's probably not a practical or efficient use of time to work through elementary QM first :)
Chemguide is aimed at A-level students, e.g. 17 year olds: Doing the math is out of the question, sadly.
But even before 17 I‘ve learnt with the orbitals diagrams like here:
https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoret...
Which I still find more informative than the drawings on the original post page.