Since electrons and protons attract each other, what keeps the electron from slamming into the proton?

Question

Since electrons and protons attract each other, what keeps the electron from slamming into the proton?

Answer 1

Protons are kept together with what is called the Strong Force which is an attractive force which acts at a very short range (1x10^-15m:within the boundaries of the nucleus!). It is the strongest of the 4 Forces (or fundamental interations). But that is Quantum Physics! Electrons are not like orbiting planets. Electrons occupy a certain energy level (for beginners imagine it as a definite distance from the nucleus). An electron can move from one level to another only if it absorbs or loses a definite amount of energy (as a photon). Now, if the electron gets closer to the nucleus, it's velocity increases, and so it moves out again. So it does not manage to fall into the nucleus! Sorry but I cannot be clearer than that, coz' Quantum Physics is not easy to explain in a few phrases. But that should suffice for now.

Answer 2

Stop finding holes in the standard model. the standard model is a lot like Aristotles world view. The model provides a quasi explanation and description of what we see but doesn't really tell us much about how it all works because the foundations are made out of fairy dust.

Answer 3

a restraining order.

Answer 4

Could it be related to the mysterious Casimer effect? Where by they are held in their own vacuum as they spin that thing, where by the pull and the push counteract each other not unlike say if magnets were to repel each other but pull too.



I didn't thumb anyone down btw :D I'm clean of thumbs

Answer 5

The strong force is what holds protons together. Otherwise, protons would just split apart. The stuff that goes into making an electron orbit a proton is very complicated, and not fully understood. Whenever a positively charged particle circles a negatively charged particle, work is always produced and momentum leaves the positively charged particle. So, if an atom acted according to macro-physics, it would only circle the proton for a small fraction of a second before it collided with the nucleus. However, if an electron in the second energy level were to jump to the first level, it would release energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. I can't remember exactly what the relationship is, but I think that the distance from the second orbital to the first orbital factors evenly into the circumference of the orbital. Meaning that if an electron in the second orbital jumps 1 ym, the circumference of the first orbital would be 2 ym.



It makes more sense if you understand that each element has an emission spectrum. The number of colors an element can emit directly correlates to the number of orbitals it has. The wave lengths it emits directly correlate to the number of protons it has. The more protons an atom has, the closer to the nucleus the electrons tend to be, which changes how much energy they have and the distance they have to jump.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum



This may not be completely accurate, but it's the general idea.

Answer 6

You can think about quantum mechanics and what not. But think about how fast these electrons are moving around the nucleus. It probably has a lot to do with centrifugal force — the force that keeps the moon in ORBIT not what attracts the moon to the earth. If the moon had no momentum, don't you think it would fall straight down like an apple that was dropped. I know that physics on the subatomic are, and I stress this, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than large scale physics but thats all I can deduce.

Answer 7

I'm not sure exactly, but I do know that protons and neutrons are part of the nucleus and the electrons are in the electron cloud that surrounds it.

Answer 8

There is a force called the strong force that only exists within an atom. i believe that is what keeps them from sslamming into eachother

Answer 9

You have to understand quantum mechanics to really see what's going on. A glib, if imprecise, response would be to blame it on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. An electron cannot be confined to a small area without having an uncertainty in its momentum. So the smaller the box you put it in, the more energy it has. (Note: any time a physicist invokes the uncertainty principle to explain anything, keep one hand firmly on your wllet).



The precise answer is that you have to solve the schrodinger equation to find the allowed states for the electron. It's a differential equation not too unlike a classical wave equation. Just as a standing wave in a tank can only have certain discrete wavelengths, an electron can only have certain energy levels. And just as a standing wave has a minimum (fundamental) frequency, the bound electron has a minimum energy level.



So it would take a force much stronger than electrostatic attraction to bind an electron in the nucleus. What happens in electron capture isn't so much that the electron gets bound in the nucleus. It just has to find itself there, and if it is energetically favorable to do so, a proton can grab it in a weak interaction and turn into a neutron (and spit out a neutrino).



And no, electrons do not feel the strong interaction which is what binds quarks into nucleons (among other things) and binds the nucleons together in the nucleus.