Patterns and atoms

This chapter explores the patterns of electron probability waves around atoms, called orbitals, and the way they spread out to encompass groups of atoms to make molecules, and spread out even further to become the conduction bands in metals that allow electrons to flow freely. It shows standing waves, from optical standing waves created when laser light is reflected back on itself, to sound waves in metal plates, to probability waves for electrons in hydrogen, and one created when electrons reflect off atoms in a metal surface. The physics of atoms allows the reader to understand how the world works. The Pauli exclusion principle explains the structure of atoms and, astonishingly, also explains white dwarf stars and neutron stars. The world of atoms and solids is the world around the reader, but the tiny size of atoms and quantum rules that they obey is normally considered beyond the reach of school science.