Negative electron energy

[Hayley Hammons 1L]

Why are all energies negative in the Schrödinger equation for energy of an electron?

[Mallika Varkhedi 2E]

I was wondering this also, and I think it might have to do with the fact that electrons are negatively charged particles.

[dbalestra4F]

In the schrodinger equation, there is a negative sign to specify the wave function. The wave function (psi), which the equation solves for, is squared to find psi^2 which represents the probability of finding an electron. Otherwise, when you square root the psi squared value, you get + or - psi, so having the negative allows you to specify the value for the wave function as negative.