Can you help me define this physics statement a little better? Electrons moving around a nucleus don't emit...

Question

I have.....Electrons moving about a nucleus don't emit radiation because they form standing waves. Does this sound correct or is there some kind of principle to go along with it?

Answer 1

Hm... I would add a few (important) words to that statement. How about:

STABLE electrons moving about a nucleus don't emit radiation because they form a CIRCULAR standing wave.

You can leave out the second modification and it's still okay, but if you leave out the first then you have a problem... even electrons that were happily not emitting radiation a second ago may do so to lose energy and move into a recently vacated orbital.

If you want some of the theory that goes alone with it, the necessity for a standing wave in an electron orbital is the REASON why energies they emit are quantized. Since only standing wave-like movements are stable, there isn't a continuous spectrum of possible orbits, but only steps separated by unworkable gaps.

Answer 2

The above answer is correct, electrons don't circle the nucleus as if they did they would emit radiation and subsequently spiral into the nucleus in less than 1 second. To solve this you must introduce quantum mechanics and the idea of an electron's probability wave as well as quantization of orbits.

Answer 3

Its wrong.

In a semiclassical picture with electrons MOVING around the nucleus it is inevitable that they would emit radiation. They do not, so this picture is clearly wrong.

You cannot fix it with standing waves or anything like. You have to introduce quantisation.