02-13-2006, 08:42 AM
What they taught us in science class this year about electrons is this: electron shells (what some call "orbitals") are basically energy levels. How much energy there is corresponds to the number of electrons in the shell. They also taught us that nobody really knows what electrons really look like, since electrons could be particles, or they could be waves radiating outward from the nucleus. They also taught us that nobody really knows what the nucleus looks like, but it could look like something different from the traditional model (like a drop of liquid).
Essentially, they taught us that nobody really knows what these things are really like, all that we know is how they act in certain situations.
Here's my theory:
Electrons, when bonded to an atomic nucleus, are basically waves of energy radiating outward from the nucleus. When they are unbonded, they are still waves, they just reach out a shorter distance, and they go out from a sort of nucleus, kind of like a miniature atom. When they are bonded with a nucleus, they group together in groups corresponding to the various electron shells, and they all join together and radiate outward, each drawing on the other's energy, and in the process forming probability clouds around the nucleus.
Perhaps photons, since they have no charge, are in fact electron nucleii. Perhaps the energy waves are needed to give something a charge. If that is true, then the nucleus would act very similar to the electron shell: the protons bonding together to send out waves of positive energy, the neutrons perhaps lowering the charge. Since protons and neutrons seem to mass more than electrons and photons, and therefore put out more energy, perhaps the neutrons "cancel out" the protons energy somehow.
Of course, I can't prove any of that, and it leads to further questions (such as what makes up an electrons nucleus, how do the electrons bond, etc.) that I can never hope to answer, but that's how I see the world, and it seems logical to me. Of course, I'm only a high-schooler, so it's not like I'm going to have any influence on the scientific world with this, but it makes sense to me, and it fits in with what I know of physics.
Any physics gurus out there care to correct me where I'm hopelessly wrong?
Essentially, they taught us that nobody really knows what these things are really like, all that we know is how they act in certain situations.
Here's my theory:
Electrons, when bonded to an atomic nucleus, are basically waves of energy radiating outward from the nucleus. When they are unbonded, they are still waves, they just reach out a shorter distance, and they go out from a sort of nucleus, kind of like a miniature atom. When they are bonded with a nucleus, they group together in groups corresponding to the various electron shells, and they all join together and radiate outward, each drawing on the other's energy, and in the process forming probability clouds around the nucleus.
Perhaps photons, since they have no charge, are in fact electron nucleii. Perhaps the energy waves are needed to give something a charge. If that is true, then the nucleus would act very similar to the electron shell: the protons bonding together to send out waves of positive energy, the neutrons perhaps lowering the charge. Since protons and neutrons seem to mass more than electrons and photons, and therefore put out more energy, perhaps the neutrons "cancel out" the protons energy somehow.
Of course, I can't prove any of that, and it leads to further questions (such as what makes up an electrons nucleus, how do the electrons bond, etc.) that I can never hope to answer, but that's how I see the world, and it seems logical to me. Of course, I'm only a high-schooler, so it's not like I'm going to have any influence on the scientific world with this, but it makes sense to me, and it fits in with what I know of physics.
Any physics gurus out there care to correct me where I'm hopelessly wrong?
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