Ferrous Wheels and Quantum Corrals I was inspired by a very bad pun I heard this morning. Hidden inside of it is an important lesson on the quantum nature of electrons. What you’re looking at is a famous experiment in which iron atoms were manipulated by the atomic needle tip of a scanning tunneling microscope until they formed a perfect circle on a copper surface (the bottom one is an artist’s interpretation, however). That’s already cool, manipulating individual atoms to form a sort of “ferrous wheel” of their own … but it gets cooler! See the waves in the center of the corral? I’m reminded of the ripples on the surface of a pond when a pebble is thrown in. They form on the atomic scale due to the quantum nature of electrons. If you’ve religiously read everything I’ve ever posted, you know that atoms are mostly empty space and that electrons exist like waves rather than tiny points flying around. Copper’s electrons exist in a very particular pattern of orbitals that is represented like this: When the iron atoms in that corral up there form their circle, the electron waves in the copper surface interact and intersect in such a way that a standing wave is formed. You are literally looking at the quantum nature of electrons! Each electron in an orbital can only exist in a certain wave, otherwise the other electrons in that atom would interfere with it. Let Brian Cox tell you more about those standing waves with a little help from his friends.
Zoom Info
Ferrous Wheels and Quantum Corrals I was inspired by a very bad pun I heard this morning. Hidden inside of it is an important lesson on the quantum nature of electrons. What you’re looking at is a famous experiment in which iron atoms were manipulated by the atomic needle tip of a scanning tunneling microscope until they formed a perfect circle on a copper surface (the bottom one is an artist’s interpretation, however). That’s already cool, manipulating individual atoms to form a sort of “ferrous wheel” of their own … but it gets cooler! See the waves in the center of the corral? I’m reminded of the ripples on the surface of a pond when a pebble is thrown in. They form on the atomic scale due to the quantum nature of electrons. If you’ve religiously read everything I’ve ever posted, you know that atoms are mostly empty space and that electrons exist like waves rather than tiny points flying around. Copper’s electrons exist in a very particular pattern of orbitals that is represented like this: When the iron atoms in that corral up there form their circle, the electron waves in the copper surface interact and intersect in such a way that a standing wave is formed. You are literally looking at the quantum nature of electrons! Each electron in an orbital can only exist in a certain wave, otherwise the other electrons in that atom would interfere with it. Let Brian Cox tell you more about those standing waves with a little help from his friends.
Zoom Info

Ferrous Wheels and Quantum Corrals

I was inspired by a very bad pun I heard this morning. Hidden inside of it is an important lesson on the quantum nature of electrons.

What you’re looking at is a famous experiment in which iron atoms were manipulated by the atomic needle tip of a scanning tunneling microscope until they formed a perfect circle on a copper surface (the bottom one is an artist’s interpretation, however). That’s already cool, manipulating individual atoms to form a sort of “ferrous wheel” of their own … but it gets cooler!

See the waves in the center of the corral? I’m reminded of the ripples on the surface of a pond when a pebble is thrown in. They form on the atomic scale due to the quantum nature of electrons. If you’ve religiously read everything I’ve ever posted, you know that atoms are mostly empty space and that electrons exist like waves rather than tiny points flying around. Copper’s electrons exist in a very particular pattern of orbitals that is represented like this:

When the iron atoms in that corral up there form their circle, the electron waves in the copper surface interact and intersect in such a way that a standing wave is formed. You are literally looking at the quantum nature of electrons! Each electron in an orbital can only exist in a certain wave, otherwise the other electrons in that atom would interfere with it.

Let Brian Cox tell you more about those standing waves with a little help from his friends.

214 Notes/ Hide

  1. jrnarvaez reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  2. natthebuddhist reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. nikotundra reblogged this from project-argus
  4. rambohippo reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  5. isometries reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  6. thecraftychemist reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  7. invisiblespoon reblogged this from quotumbler
  8. awesomeocelot reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  9. thestarkinmypants reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  10. tinyfunsies reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  11. resofactor reblogged this from persiko
  12. cab1729 reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  13. jzumun reblogged this from spinor
  14. profesormoriarty reblogged this from alnator
  15. wht-rabbit-obj reblogged this from mrniall
  16. laexd reblogged this from thatphysicist and added:
    ^^^^ Me too!
  17. physics-wh reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  18. mrniall reblogged this from project-argus
  19. thatphysicist reblogged this from contemplatingmadness and added:
    hey, hey guys, have i mentioned that brian cox is down the corridor from me? And i’m going to be using kit like this in...
  20. sariemcstrickland reblogged this from astrotastic
  21. abcstarstuff reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  22. mxblues reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  23. humoresques reblogged this from astrotastic
  24. symphonicpoetry reblogged this from jtotheizzoe

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus