I am studying orbitals at school. They are very interesting and

[edo1493]

I am studying orbitals at school. They are very interesting and strange at the same time; they seem to be very similar to a planet in orbit around a black hole. However I am not here for that. I was wondering if you knew a good and short reference in order to understand E,Shrodinger's equation. I mean I haven't studied calculus yet, but I would like to learn more.
I will have an oral examination next week.

What happen when two electrons collide in the first orbital ?

 

[Drakkith]

What happen when two electrons collide in the first orbital ?

They won't collide. They share the orbital. You can find more on Wikipedia under electron shells or electron orbitals. You can also find more on Schrodingers equation as well. If you are intesrested in it, I recommend picking up a book called "Introducing: Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide to Science's Most Puzzline Discovery" by J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate. It's a great little book on things like this. It's a small illustrated book that introduces Quantum Theory in a great way. I enjoyed it alot.

 

[edo1493]

They will never collide, won't they ? I mean, they share the same orbital, but how can't they collide? There should be a possibility..

 

[HallsofIvy]

You seem to be thinking of the "orbitals" as "orbits"- that the electrons are moving around the nucleus as planets move around the sun. That is not true. The "planetary model" of the atom is long outmoded.

 

[edo1493]

Yeah, I know. I wasn't thinking about Rutherford's planetary model.
The first orbital is like a sphere; in that sphere there are two electrons, why they shouldn't collide? I mean they have opposite charge, they should be able to get a great energy after the collision.

 

[Drakkith]

Yeah, I know. I wasn't thinking about Rutherford's planetary model.
The first orbital is like a sphere; in that sphere there are two electrons, why they shouldn't collide? I mean they have opposite charge, they should be able to get a great energy after the collision.

Nope. If the electrons even could collide they would end up with the same amount of energy after the collision as they had before it. The charges would repel each other, slowing them down as they approach and then speeding them up afterwards. However this doesn't even happen for 2 electrons in an orbital.

Electrons aren't solid little balls, they are something else entirely. We can only describe them based on the way they act when we observe them and how they follow the rules of nature. It turns out that they are more like waves or a wave packet than a solid object. The two electrons in the orbital actually occupy the same space at the same time. They are effectively spread out everwhere at once in their orbital. If we bounced a photon off of one of these electrons we could observe where the electron was AT THAT TIME, but otherwise we only have a list of probabilities of where it might be at any given time. The photon interacts with the electron at a certain point, but otherwise the electron is considered to be everywhere within it's probability set otherwise.

 

[nasu]

Yeah, I know. I wasn't thinking about Rutherford's planetary model.
The first orbital is like a sphere; in that sphere there are two electrons, why they shouldn't collide? I mean they have opposite charge, they should be able to get a great energy after the collision.

What kind of charge are you talking about? The electric charge is definitely the same and not opposite.
The electrons may have different (opposite) spin states (if they are both in the same s orbital).