MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Subject: Why are electron orbitals so huge rel. to the size of a nucleus?

Date: Wed Oct 24 21:27:19 2001
Posted by Matt
Grade level: grad (science) School: No school entered.
City: No city entered. State/Province: No state entered. Country: No country entered.
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1003973239.Ph
Message:

This is a tough question to phrase, but here goes:

Consider an atom with 2 protons, 2 neutrons, and 2 electrons (with 3 quarks 
composing each of the nucleons). Now, for each particle, imagine drawing a 
surface such that, if you went looking for the particle, there would be a 95% 
chance of finding it within that surface. (The standard idea of an "orbital" 
for electrons, but applied to the quarks, protons, and neutrons as well.) I 
will refer to these surfaces (and the volume contained within) as orbitals - 
that's not a standard way to talk about quarks,protons, and neutrons but I'll 
use the term anyway for clarity since it's the same concept as electon orbitals.

Now the electron orbitals are huge relative to the proton and 
neutron "orbitals", which in turn are much larger than the quark "orbitals". 
Why? Does it have to do with the mass of the particles? (That is, if the 
electrons were much more massive, would their orbitals be smaller?) Does it 
have to do with the strength of the forces involved? (That is, if the strong 
force were much weaker, would the quarks have much larger "orbitals" - or, 
equivalently, would the protons and neutrons be much "bigger"? If the residual 
strong attractions between protons and neutrons were to strengthen, would the 
nucleus (that is, the "orbitals" of the protons and neutrons) shrink?)

I hope that all makes sense.

Thanks! 


Re: Why are electron orbitals so huge rel. to the size of a nucleus?

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