Undergrad Width of one electron shell of a hydrogen atom

[devan]

I'm quite new to quantum mechanics. I have a question, I'm coding a small game with my friends and I do understand the orbitals and I've even written a function in java to simulate the probabilities of ONE of those diagrams, but I do not know my scale just yet, can anyone tell me the width of one electron shell of a hydrogen atom. The sim is in 2 dimensions for now, at least until I get around to making it 3d :(

remember, I'm asking for the width of ONE possible shell. preferably one that has a good distinction between the 2 shells.

 

[edguy99]

Tell us about how the game works. Is it real time? Do you calculate forces between frames?

 

[devan]

Yes, first the regular momentum of the particle is applied THEN all the particles interact, this is to save on those oh so beautiful threads. Also this is better because, if I interacted first then particles could never "jump" through stuff like electrons do.
I just got to the part where this is pretty important for me to know.
Frame-rates don't seem to be something that I'll get a lot of.
Its between frames because real-time would be destruction to your computer.

 

[DrClaude]

remember, I'm asking for the width of ONE possible shell. preferably one that has a good distinction between the 2 shells.

What shells are you talking about?

Orbitals are basically probability distributions, so it doesn't make sense to talk about a definite value of its size. You can have classical analogies, like the Bohr orbit, but quantum mechanically, there is no definite orbital size.

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm quite new to quantum mechanics. I have a question, I'm coding a small game with my friends and I do understand the orbitals and I've even written a function in java to simulate the probabilities of ONE of those diagrams, but I do not know my scale just yet, can anyone tell me the width of one electron shell of a hydrogen atom. The sim is in 2 dimensions for now, at least until I get around to making it 3d :(

remember, I'm asking for the width of ONE possible shell. preferably one that has a good distinction between the 2 shells.

Yes, first the regular momentum of the particle is applied THEN all the particles interact, this is to save on those oh so beautiful threads. Also this is better because, if I interacted first then particles could never "jump" through stuff like electrons do.
I just got to the part where this is pretty important for me to know.
Frame-rates don't seem to be something that I'll get a lot of.
Its between frames because real-time would be destruction to your computer.

I don't get it either.

What does it mean that you have "written a function in java to simulate the probabilities of ONE of those diagrams"? Did you solve the radial part of the wavefunction for a hydrogen atom, i.e. R_nl?

Most of us who did this in a QM course usually solved the radial part in terms of the Bohr radius, i.e, r/a₀, where r is the radial coordinate and a₀ is the Bohr radius. This is a number that you can look up. It also means that you can find an average value of the radius, and that, will give you the size of the H-atom, which I take it to be what you are asking for when you asked for the "width of one possible shell". For the H-atom, isn't the "width" of the 1s orbital the size of the atom itself?

Zz.