1

I'm curious to know about why are they stable, let's talk about $p$-orbital , $p$-orbital is dumbbell shaped shouldn't electrons just fall into the nucleus because we need a centrifugal force to counteract the nuclear attraction so electrons should revolve around nucleus

Qmechanic
  • 220,844
Aditya Mishra
  • 21

1 Answers1

1

What you have pointed out is actually an issue with Classical Mechanics. Electrons are small enough that their behavior is dictated by Quantum Mechanics. On that scale, electrons behave like waves, rather than particles (until they are observed). Orbitals are solutions to the equation called Schrödinger's Equation. You can think of them as 3D standing waves.

Tolemus M
  • 38