What does Heisenberg Indeterminacy indicate with respect to the “randomness” of the electrons that are near nucleus

$\Delta p \Delta x\geq \frac{h}{4\pi }$

Yinhan_Liu_1D
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Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:00 am

What does Heisenberg Indeterminacy indicate with respect to the “randomness” of the electrons that are near nucleus

Are the electrons that are very close to nucleus some what "confined" to those level? When delta X is small, delta p is very big. Does it mean that those electrons are extremely "random" in their velocity (they change velocity constantly)?
So that they have really high energy level?

MelanieAu1G
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Re: What does Heisenberg Indeterminacy indicate with respect to the “randomness” of the electrons that are near nucleus

The Heisenberg Indeterminacy Principle accounts for the fact that because we can never know the exact position and momentum (mass times the velocity) of a particle at any given time, there is still a way to estimate or consider those characteristics of a particle but to a certain extent. This indeterminacy is due to the measurement processes which one uses to find the position and momentum (specifically velocity) of a particle on an atomic level; it is the measurement process itself that does not allow us to find the position and momentum exactly. This principle further states (as you mentioned) that the more accurate one characteristic is, the less accurate the other is. This is due to the position and momentum's proportionality to one another; this relationship can be seen in the Heisenberg Indeterminacy Equation [(indeterminacy in momentum)*(indeterminacy in position)>= h/4π]. The energy of an electron is not necessarily dependent upon its change in velocity or randomness.
Hope this helps! If you still want more information or a different perspective, try referencing the textbook!

Deap Bhandal L1 S1J
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Re: What does Heisenberg Indeterminacy indicate with respect to the “randomness” of the electrons that are near nucleus

I really got a better understanding of this from Dr. Lavelle’s diagram. Normally for a large object we can use light beams to detect its position and velocity. However the same process will not work for an electron since the photons hitting the electron will cause the electron to take an unpredictable path. In this case the position at a time is known but the distance is not so we cannot determine velocity.

Salman Azfar 1K
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Re: What does Heisenberg Indeterminacy indicate with respect to the “randomness” of the electrons that are near nucleus

With regards to delta X and delta P, my TA gave us a little info. Basically, the more resources you put into knowing an electron's position, the less you know about its velocity and vice versa. So you can get pretty accurate results on one but adversely affect what you know about the other. That's why one goes down as the other goes up.