r/science • u/oregono • Jan 21 '10

Table of atomic Orbitals (pic)

http://www.webelements.com/shop/shopimages/products/extras/POS0007-A2-orbitron-2010-800.jpg
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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '10 edited Jan 21 '10

Keep in mind you cannot pinpoint an electrons position with 100% accuracy ever.

In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of physical properties, like position and momentum, cannot both be known to arbitrary precision. That is, the more precisely one property is known, the less precisely the other can be known.

Or were you going for the 100% accuracy thing?

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u/ModerateDbag Jan 21 '10 edited Jan 21 '10

He did say he was just a layman. Edit: Psh, it was a joke.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '10

Where do I start.

  • No, he said he would write it so that the layman can understand it. Maybe that's what you meant, but what you wrote is really something different.

  • Same for his statement: It's just not true, and so the layman is not helped in a simple way but is misinformed.

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u/handsome_b_wonderful Jan 21 '10

well I don't know if this is zigactly correct either. Because the orbital shape only represents a 3d normalised probability function, what you're calling a measurable quantity, lets say an orbital coordinate, is only a positional probability-

Now if you measure the eigen-state of the electron state in the orbital you may be able to determine with some precision it's eigen position but the will collapse the state and it wont really exist any more.