Or in other words which forces keep electrons in orbitals and prevent it from flying away or crashing into the nucleus according to modern understanding?

  • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    There’s kind of alot going on, but the shortest answer is “the electrostatic force between the positive nucleus and negative electron creates orbits in the same way that gravity allows a moon to orbit a planet”. The electron is moving fast enough that it just “misses” the nucleus. At least, from a classical lens.

    It gets more complicated when you introduce orbital angular momentum and start considering the magnetic effects of moving charges, and that’s what leads to the funky non-spherical orbital shapes.

    • catloaf
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      3 months ago

      And it’s not like they experience air resistance to slow them down.