Electron Orbits and Nuclei 2- Rotation vs Orbital Motion

In summary, the conversation discusses the concept of electron orbit and its relationship to rotation. It is explained that in physics, it is incorrect to say that electrons orbit the nucleus, as the term "orbit" implies following a path through space which is not the case in standard Quantum Mechanics (QM). It is also clarified that there is a difference between rotation and orbit, with orbit requiring an external attractive force to keep the objects bound together. The conversation also touches on the topics of angular momentum and electron spin, with the latter being a quantum property that is related to classical angular momentum. The idea of action and the Principle of Least Action are also briefly mentioned.
  • #71
We can, in fact, prove that the situation ISN'T that there's this little pee-like thing shooting around which DOES have a certain position and momentum we just don't know what it is. This is called a hidden variable theory (i.e. there are actually concrete hidden variables ). (This is due to what is called the bell inequality). Well to be ultimately correct we can prove/have experimentally verified that any hidden variable theory would have to be non-local (nevermind what that means).
 
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  • #72
maverick_starstrider said:
We can, in fact, prove that the situation isn't that there's this little pee-like thing shooting around
I'm hoping you meant pea-like thing...
 
  • #73
I feel like Feynman probably talked about the relativistic hydrogen atom in his book QED which was written for layman. It might be worth checking out.
 
  • #74
DaveC426913 said:
I'm hoping you meant pea-like thing...


Lol. Yes, you would hope. Ah the horrors of stream of consciousness typing without spellcheck or review... I'm not going to fix it though. This thread could use a little levity.
 
  • #75
maverick_starstrider said:
...stream of consciousness...
See now you're just making it worse...
 

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