Monday, 4 January 2016

quantum mechanics - Bound electrons don't move, right?


I've never been satisfied with the explanation that electrons have a “speed” and move close to the speed of light, thus incurring relativistic effects that make gold pretty and mercury wet. I learned that the electron is not moving, but is pinned to the location of the nucleus. A recent answer here explained different meanings of “moving”, and I'm thinking that is what's going on here, too.


An electron isn't really zipping around like a planet at nearly the speed of light. At its simplest, it takes energy to put it in different orbitals. I suppose that energy becomes added mass. But why is the relativistic massive object function shown, as if the electron had some orbit radius and resulting velocity? That would mean some energy goes into increased mass and some energy goes into velocity, so how does that give the same useful answer?




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