Are Orbitals less like physical areas in an atom and more like "states" or "behaviors" that electrons exhibit?

[Sidharth Paparaju 3B]

I thought that the wave function described electron behavior--but what that mean that orbitals are less like physical paths and more like just the electron's behavior?

[Chem_Mod]

Yes, orbitals are not pathways that an electron continuously moves around in. Rather, they describe where an electron might be located at any point in time.

[Edwin Montalvo 1G]

Yes, orbitals are not well-defined paths in which electrons travel around. Rather, it is like a 3d description of where the electron is likely to be based on factors such as electron repulsion. We can relate this to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle where you cannot know the position of an electron while simultaneously knowing its momentum.

[Matthew Nguyen 2F]

I think it honestly deals more with areas where an electron is most likely to exist at a given point in time, or the probability it is in that region, seeing as we do not know for certain where it is due to Heisenbergs uncertainty principle.

[Claire Kim 1F]

I thought that the wave function described electron behavior--but what that mean that orbitals are less like physical paths and more like just the electron's behavior?

Yes, it's not a strict path that they take because they don't follow a specific rule. However, we can predict the general behavior of electrons (not specific).