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<p>Just have a question in my current H.Chem class.
Electron clouds / orbitals, I know the different types, the S / P / D / F.
If you have an orbital, for example a 1s2, it looks like a sphere, right? Is the (probable) location of the electron inside the entire sphere? Can it be inside the sphere, or only on the surface of the sphere?</p>

<p>If so, then wouldn't the electron cloud 2s energy level overlap the 1s? And some of the area of the 2p and so on intersect each other?</p>

<p>Also, say you have a 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 atom. Though the two 3s2 electrons are the valence electrons, will the 2p6 be "incased" within the 3s2 sphere? Or would parts of it be "protuding" out of the 3s2 sphere?</p>

<p>Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions. I just can't seem to wrap my head around this concept :/</p>

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<p>Actually, the electron is on the orbital, which is why they don’t overlap, I presume. Sorry if this is wrong (not in AP Chem).</p>

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<p>If i remember from last year, orbitals overlap if you get into the transition metals.</p>

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<p>Aren’t there nodes that say those electrons can’t exist at that region?</p>

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<p>What the shape of the orbitals means is that the electrons may be found somewhere inside of the shown region. So as you said, the s orbital looks like a sphere.</p>

<p>I guess they could overlap, but due to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, no two electrons will share the same area/quantum numbers.</p>

<p>I don’t quite understand your question for this one. The electrons will occupy different energy levels and will therefore appear farther away from the nucleus the high the energy level. The regions that are described by the orbital shapes are simply “possible” areas where electrons may move. </p>

<p>I doubt that helped very much, but I don’t really know exactly what it is you are asking.</p>

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<p>All s orbitals are a ball; the electrons can be anywhere within them. However, the probability distribution isn’t equal across the entire thing, and in higher level orbitals there are these areas called “nodes” at which the electron is less likely to be found.</p>

<p>Yes, the orbitals intersect spatially a lot. Spatial position isn’t usually relevant though, and definitely not at the AP level.</p>

<p>I don’t know the relative sizes of the orbitals, but again it won’t matter for AP.</p>

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<p>Amarkov: That helped a lot! Thank you so much</p>

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<p>Also, by the Heisenburg uncertainty principle, you cannot find both the exact location and momentum of the electrons. As you get closer to knowing the location the momentum becomes “fuzzy” and vice versa. So that is the reason for the regions in which an electron may lie. </p>

<p>For AP all you really need to know is the shapes of the s, p, and d orbitals and why we even have these regions (instead of pinpointing the exact location of electrons).</p>