The Quantum-Mechanical Model Atoms with Orbitals

5 The Quantum-Mechanical Model Atoms with Orbitals  

The quantum-mechanical model of the atom replaced the Bohr model in the early twentieth century. In the quantum-mechanical model Bohr orbits are replaced with quantum-mechanical orbitals. Orbitals are different from orbits in that they represent, not specific paths that electrons follow, but probability maps that show a statistical distribution of where the electron is likely to be found. The idea of an orbital is not easy to visualize. Quantum mechanics revolutionized physics and chemistry because in the quantums-mechanical model, electrons do not behave like particles flying through space. We cannot, in general, describe their exact paths. An orbital is a probability map that shows where the electron is likely to be found when the atom is probed it does not represent the exact path that an electron takes as it travels through space. 

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