Why do electrons not crash into the nucleus? And can you explain wave-particle duality?

Question

anonymous · Answer

That question is more complicated that it appears and the answer is based on quantum mechanics. Basically think of a toy plane flying in circles around a balloon. The electron and nucleus have opposite charge so the electron wants to get closer to the nucleus but as it gets closer it starts rotating around faster.

This would be like the plane getting closer and closer, eventually the plane can't turn fast enough to actually hit the balloon. As the "orbits" of the electron become "tighter" the speed that it is spinning becomes to great and pushes it back out. And electrons are always moving at the same speed so it can't slow down and hit the nucleus.

Wave-particle duality is just that electrons/photons can behave both like a particle in some experiments, and a wave in other experiments. Waves can bend around objects while particles you would expect to travel in a line.

anonymous · Answer

@DrknoSDN yeah I'm doing a project on quantum mechanics. Also, why do particles act like a particle in one experiment then waves in another?

anonymous · Answer

wave particle duality is a simple topic... But to answer the question... why electron do not crash into the nucleus that completely based on quantum mechanics... we should know first basics of quantum mechanics... do you have knowledge about quantum mechanics?

anonymous · Answer

Not really