RE: Odd nuclear question

["Lavera, Ron" <Ron.Lavera@nypa.gov>]

See Cember "Introduction to Health Physics" 3rd Edition, chapter 3.

Good luck.

Ron LaVera
Lavera.R@nypa.gov

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	H.B. Knowles [mailto:hbknowls@ix.netcom.com]
		Sent:	Friday, December 03, 1999 1:17 AM
		To:	Multiple recipients of list
		Subject:	Re: Odd nuclear question

		At 16:02 12/02/1999 Thursday-0600, you wrote:
		>Hi all, 
		>
		>Someone asked me if the orbital speed of an electron
depended on it's
		>distance from the nucleus.  The entirely unsatisfactory
answer that I have
		>is "I'm not sure".  Does anyone out there happen to know?
Any references
		>would be nice as well, I'd like to brush up on this
particular part of
		>nuclear theory again.  
		>
		>My thanks as always, 
		>
		>Scott Kniffin
		>
		>RSO Unisys Federal Systems, Lanham, MD
		>CHO Radiation Effects Facility, GSFC, NASA
		>mailto:Scott.D.Kniffin.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
		>
		>The opinions expressed here are my own. They do not
necessarily represent
		>the views of Unisys or NASA.  This material has not been
reviewed by my
		>manager or NASA.  
	
>**********************************************************************
		The question is, accvording to our current understanding,
meaningless. The
		electron does NOT move in a little orbit like a planet (if
it did, it would
		basically follow planetary kinematics, because of the
inverse-square force law)
		but rather, has a probability density per unit volume.
(That' the psi-psi-star
		ome may recall). This "cloud of probability" has a shape
that is basically
		determined by the elctron's angular momentun: for s
elecrrons, with zero
		(orbital) angular momentum it is spherically symmetric; for
orbital ang. mom.
		equal to 1 (in units of h /2*pi) it is symmetrical aftert
one rotation and so
		on. The electrons have spin 1/2 each and this locks into the
orbital, giving
		rise to "fine structure". By using the operator

		                j h/2*pi                ( j = sqrt (-1))

		on the psi-function, one can get the momentum at a
particular location. This is
		indeed consistent with the uncrtainty principle>

		The Bohr atom was a first step and is indeed still often
invoked as a
		conceptual model, but this has its pitfalls.
		H.B. Knowles, PhD, Physics Consulting
		4030 Hillcrest Rd, El Sobrante, CA 94803
		Phone\Fax (510)758-5449
		hbknowls@ix.netcom.com
		<www.hbknowles.com>
	
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