What Does an Electron Look Like?

[ehhov]

I am a physicist and I'm always blown away by your examples. Too often a cool video title leads to nonsensical renders and analogies, but not yours. Keep up the awesome work!

[whitestone]

This is the best demonstration of electron orbitals I've ever seen. I've never heard them equated to standing waves before, and the demonstration so easy to understand. Thank you for this video!

[Mike__B]

that's so cool with the ring standing waves, I've never seen that in all my years of taking physics (and later teaching it), I've done a linear version of that with that same vibrational tool but the ring really brings another level of cool to things.

That said, I always found it odd that electrons don't exist as "an electron" until we actually detect/interact with it, instead it is a probability wave of where it could be. The whole "this is what the orbitals look like... except you'll never see that, almost felt like someone trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

[richmahogany]

This is great. You should do a whole series on topics that were taught to us in school in a let's say "inaccurate" way.

[PyroLeon]

Finally a simple, pictorial explanation of why the energy levels are discrete.

[TheMildConfusion]

I’m just a regular dude that occasionally likes to learn about science stuffs, but this is hands down the best explanation by analogy of electron orbitals I’ve ever seen.

[SmallChili]

Electrons have a negative charge but I wish everybody a positively charged day

[heyspookyboogie]

This is why I actually like when terminology changes as we gain insight instead of keeping old contradictory terms for the sake of comfort/familiarity.

[Countryballs_Animation_Studios]

Been watching this guy for over 3 years and love his content

[ewmegoolies]

My jaw dropped. All these years (over 50) and finally it was you that helped me understand in a way that is easy to comprehend what is going on with the electron orbital. Just wow and thanks!!!! More More MORE!! so good.

[shawnaroo]

Ignoring electrons for a moment, that t-shirt is absolutely outstanding!

[Ogoun-grandson]

wow, what perfect way to finally be able to visualize electrons. on another note now i can completely understand how atoms form molecular bonds cause it's literally all just interlocking waves

[seanmckee]

I would love to see this with a flexible sphere. It would be cool to see the harmonics in 3 dimensions....

What I really love about this is I have learned this over and over but just in the context of musical harmony. The concept of fundamental frequencies and their harmonics are the building blocks of music and sound.

[RichardHartness]

Thanks for sharing this visualization of the general idea of electron fields. I took AP chemistry in 98/99, and that's where my instructor told us about the "lies to children" we all learned about the orbiting electron. We had to learn about the various orbital states and their shapes but we had no clue why that was the shape. Seeing something like a harmonic frequency in a loop helps clarify a bit about what could be going on at the sub-atomic level! Brilliant!

[jaydendamata]

Can't believe how well this was explained. As a physicist I'm always looking for better ways to explain quantum mechanics ( sometimes to students and sometimes to myself)!

These examples show how well you actually understand Q.M (to the extent one can actually understand it, if you know what I mean).
Ide love to see some more analogies.
Thanks for the vid

[nathanoher]

3:10 slight correction, they do move smoothly between orbitals, but we are only allowed to observe it in a discrete state, not in a transition. Detecting an electron halfway through a transition has a 50% chance of being seen as the old state and 50% chance of being seen as the new state. One third the way through the transition is 33/67, etc. The transition is also very fast. Also, trying to measure an electron during the transition might result in the electron being disturbed.

[CaptianBigums]

I am in my last semester of Biochem in CSUF and one of the classes they have us take is called Physical Chemistry 2 and we are week 6 out of 16 and we have learned this EXACT video! It's so great actually knowing what this wonderful man is saying and knowing all the equations and models we use to figure this stuff out. A true marvel of explanations!

This also is me high as a kite but I truly was super happy knowing what this man was talking about. I always like chemistry but I am happy that I will do it for a good chunk of my life :)

You got a rare thumbs up and subscription! Nice one :D

[gregterteryan]

This lesson actually just came up today in my chemistry class, thanks for letting me have a better understanding of it.

[friedrichkoerner]

It should be noted that Louis de Broglie was the one who proposed the idea that an atom's energy levels are caused by standing waves.