What ARE atomic orbitals?

What are atomic orbitals in chemistry? How do orbitals work, why do they have weird gaps, and why do textbooks show them as hard shells half the time and fuzzy clouds the rest of the time? And where can we see things like electronic orbitals in the world around us? Watch this video to the chemistry and science of orbitals and energy levels, explained and visualized with 3D animations.

I would especially like to thank the staff of the Fukuoka City Science Museum for their time and generous support.

Two-dimensional waves:

Bohmian mechanics:

Understanding electron ‘spin’:

How all that leads to the Pauli Exclusion Principle:

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Three Twentysix Project Leader: Dr Andrew Robertson
Assistant Editor: Purple Saptari
3D animations/production assistant: Es Hiranpakorn
Graphic Design: Maria Sucianto

This video was produced at Kyushu University and supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K02904. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kyushu University, JSPS or MEXT.

[benjaminlum]

Oh my gosh! The "people in the plazza" model is the best intuitive explanation I've come across for imagning electron orbitals!

[tokonjudo]

Every physics/chemistry teacher in the world needs to include this in their lessons. Fantastic explanation.

[lachy]

Im a major of chemistry - I think about this stuff a lot in my spare time, and this hits the nail on the head. Bravo!

[Vladek]

that public place analogy has to be the best scientific analogy I've ever seen

[Devv]

I watched this video of curiosity and I wasn't disappointed, how could I be disappointed from such a small channel, rather I'm suprised by the quality this video has.
Good job on making this video, it is just like other more famous videos. Keep making videos and cover most interesting topics possible and you will get more attention

[DonLuc]

Dang, where was this guy 60 years ago when I was in school? This made so much sense to me, and I worked the electronics field for 24 years.

[Darthangerfist]

This is absolutely brilliant!! This is by far the most intuitive explanation I've heard so far!

[nurulhasan]

Oh my, I've just discovered your channel. My bad. I've checked your contents, and I can say, "worth watching, worth subscribing."
I'm high school chemistry teacher, so is helpful a lot considering your explanation on the topic. Moreover, slides preparation videos also work really well as I'm always making presentation in front of the class. I owe you buddy. Keep up the good work, bunch of guys certainly will notice your works.

Love from Indonesia.

[Fomites]

Great explanations! Thanks. I did my first degree in the early Seventies when learning resources were scant (and of course the Internet had not been thought of let alone realised). Concepts such as entropy were not explained, rather just stated with an equation and we really understood nothing. We live in a whole new World of learning now and this video is a wonderful example :-)

[Splarkszter]

I'm just so impressed a new/small channel has this much quality, just amazing. And the explanations are incredibly intuitive. Thank you so much for your work!!!

[prapanthebachelorette]

As a chemistry enthusiast who has a very hard time visualizing things, this is beyond the word helpful 😊

[parthmandavgade]

Please make a video on overlapping of these orbitals ( covalent bonding). By the way love your explanation ❤ great job man

[paulscott]

As someone who has done quantum mechanics, this is a brilliant explanation

[pharaoh]

How refreshing. If have heard/ seen many dozens of videos/ papers on this subject. The all regurgitate the same “spin” on how they present the data. This was a nice change.

[bobcarn]

I absolutely LOVE your illustration of orbitals by showing superimposed pictures of the plaza. That was a clever and novel approach!

[agnekovalkova]

I love the flip transition and the calmness and familiarity portayed in your video style

[londonalicante]

A young Walter White teaching chemistry in a prison uniform....

[Quarksi]

It's been a decade since I last took a chemistry class but it's nice to finally have this further explained to me in a way I can understand. It's been one of those things I've been waiting to understand but forgotten about.

[dibaldgyfm]

Whenever I hear analysis of particle physics I object, protest: if there is space there is time and movement -- that's why we can observe. No observation is timeless.
The video explanation is excellent. ❤❤❤

[mightychondriaofthecell]

This channel is one of the most underrated in chemistry I have found. You, sir, are a phenomenal communicator of science!