SAVol7Dec09WesternCo.. - Saptarishis Astrology

atom which prevents them from spiraling into the nucleus as classical physicspredicts. Let us look at the picture of a hydrogen atom in its ground state. If we think thatthe electron is looping around the nucleus as shown in Figure 1A, then we are 80 years out ofdate. According to quantum mechanics, the probability density plot of the electron inhydrogen atom is shown in Figure 1B. The density of the dots represents the probability offinding the electron in that region.Figure 1A: Electron looping around the nucleus in hydrogen atom according to classicalphysics.Figure 1B: Electron probability density cloud of hydrogen atom according to quantummechanics.The size of an atom is ~1 x 10 -10 meter. The central nucleus where 99.9 percent of the atom’smass resides is ~1 x 10 -15 to 1 x 10 -14 meter. The size of an electron is not exactly known, butthought to be of the order of 1 x 10 -14 meter. If the nucleus were the size of our Sun, then thehydrogen ground state would be twenty times larger than the solar system. If the electronwere really a point particle moving around the atomic space, it would reside in a space sovacant that it would make solar system seem crowded. Now, if we consider the wavefunction of the electron with its probability density, then the probability density will fill upthe whole atomic space. For instance, let us try to push our hand through a wall. Since atoms1813