(November 16, 2017 at 8:42 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: It's something to do with their energy levels. Given higher energy states, they have higher "orbits." The "orbit" analogy is a poor one though. Gravity as absolutely nothing to do with it.
^^^^ What he said.
It is absolutely true that you could describe the earth falling around the sun. But that is not what electrons do in interacting with the center of an atom.
Gravity when you are talking about the sun, has to do with the displacement of time space because of it's larger mass say than than that of the earth. Imagine a wrecking ball being placed on a soft waterbed. It would cause a dent in the center causing a cone circle dent around the wrecking ball. Anything smaller near that dent is going to fall towards it. An "orbit" is anything that falls but is still big enough to not completely fall into the sun.
Electrons are not interacting like Earth is to the Sun. Electrons are at the micro level dealing with energy interactions at the quantum level, IE SMALL. The earth and sun are at the MACRO level IE, very very BIG. And not related as far as metaphor.
Here is a video that gives you insight as to what gravity is on a huge scale. I think you might recognize a guy named COBERT. But you have been here long enough, it would not surprise me if you know whom Brian Greene is.
