If an electron does not take a 2 dimentional orbit would it take a 3 dimentional orbit?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

The electrons do orbit, but they don't necessarily take a simple shape. They are affected by the electric fields of the nucleus and of other electrons. Where two or more atoms are joined by a chemical bond, electrons in the outer shells orbit more than one nucleus. Orbits become complex indeed. Quantum mechanics says you can't measure both the position and the momentum of the electron. That's why the orbits are described as a probability cloud. Furthermore, quantum mechanics says the length of each electron orbit is an integral multiple of the electron's wavefunction. That's why the electrons can orbit only at discrete energy levels, and why photons emmited when an electron drops an energy level is at a discrete energy.

Answer 3

The pictures used to describe the structure of the atom to look like a solar system, with the electrons orbitting the nucleus are just for visualization. The electron do not behave like that, they do not orbit, they exist in clouds of probability of different shapes around the atom. This is quantum physics... When you get down the the sub-atomic level, things don't really exist in a physical sense anymore... It is all inter-twined enegy vibrating in resonances.