THANKS to those who are answering to all my electron questions (see I got started on this topic because I was studying photosynthesis, and how electrons need "special carriers" to be transported, so that got me thinking about electrons) anyway, why, in basic terms, do high-energy electrons seem to be further away from the nucleus?
2006-12-25 13:06:13 · 6 answers · asked by Upon this rock 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
when it says nucleus at the end, the nucleus of the atom......
2006-12-25 13:06:50 · update #1
well in basic terms. think of a central point. imagine you have a lot of lots of electrons. they cant all touch the center, the nucleus, because you eventually run out of room. so they have to go on a different level. when it gets crowded, you can still add them but they just dont touch the center. thats when they go to a higher level, a higher level away from the nucleus.
2006-12-25 16:48:24 · answer #1 · answered by philosopher 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Bah, phooey. All your answers so far are based on Debroglie's conceptual model of an atom... which pits electrons as little planets orbiting a nucleus. That's the problem, that classical model is just a conceptual tool, it's not meant for any understanding of the REAL application of electrons.
You see, in real life atoms are not neat little packages orbiting the nucleus, and they don't fly about in organized orbitals getting LITERALLY higher when they get more energy. Higher is, once again, a conceptual term we use in physics because it helps to describe some difficult concepts. Here it is, then: electrons actually don't normally travel around as a particle.... there's a lot of quantum mechanics involved, but they actually exist as little clouds of probability surrounding the nucleus. These little clouds represent a series of probability functions which denote the most likely location of an electron when measured (though until you take a measurement the electron doesn't exist in any one place). Increasing the energy to a higher level causes the shape of the probability function to change, but there's no reason that a level n=1 atom might not appear 5 times further away from the nucleus than a level n=3 atom... it's all just probabilities. For more information on electron orbitals as they TRULY are, i've attached a decent link in my sources... and, of course, i accept messages for clarifications to answers
2006-12-26 11:59:57 · answer #2 · answered by promethius9594 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
well, the potential energy of an electron in an atom is a function of its distance from the nucleus. Potential energy is usually measured as a negative value. Its kinetic energy is based on how fast it is going around the nucleus. Because the proton is attracting the electron, the electron uses this kinetic energy to stay away from the proton. Kinetic energy plus potential energy gives the total energy of the electron.
Usually when you talk about the energy levels of an electron (n=1, n=2...) you're talking about its total energy. There's a lot of mathematics involved, but the higher the energy level, the more energy an electron has, so as it gains energy, it's kinetic energy increases, but its potential energy also gets more negative. In the end, kinetic energy increases faster than potential energy as energy levels increase.
hope that helps.
2006-12-25 23:38:15 · answer #3 · answered by Zach T 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The nucleus pulls the electrons towards it. It takes energy to resist that force and stay away from the nucleus. The more energy the electron has, the farther away it can stay.
2006-12-26 02:26:49 · answer #4 · answered by Amy F 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The higher energy electrons are repulsed by a proportional amount to their level of energy.
2006-12-25 21:10:59 · answer #5 · answered by Grev 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
the electrons move extremely fast. its the nuclei keeping the electron from flying away.
2006-12-25 21:09:50 · answer #6 · answered by julia k 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋