Actually, i am confused between all of them. some says that angular node is same as nodal planes and radial nodes is same as nodal surfaces... and what's the difference between nodal planes and nodal surfaces. other says that angular node is the intersection point of nodal plane. please explain in easy explanation.
Asked
Active
Viewed 670 times
-4
-
1Summarize then who says what, and/or focus on single terms. They are rather self-explaining. – Poutnik Sep 06 '22 at 05:44
-
could you please share your explanation on the same – Piyush Baweja Sep 06 '22 at 05:46
-
Write down your understanding effort first. – Poutnik Sep 06 '22 at 05:47
-
what i understood till now is that angular nodes are the intersection point of the nodal plane with the atom..... and radial nodes are the spherical region and the surface which it covers is called as nodal surfance... btw nodes and nodal planes are the areas where e- density is zero – Piyush Baweja Sep 06 '22 at 05:51
-
actually no, i have read that but couldn't understand – Piyush Baweja Sep 06 '22 at 06:06
1 Answers
1
You are on the right track.
Nodes are generally 3D surface regions where electron occurrence probability density is zero.
Nodal planes and surfaces are such nodes from geometrical point of view.
Radial and angular nodes are such nodes from point of view of wave functions. As either radial either angular part of a wave function is responsible of the zero density value.
From the geometry of used spherical coordinates, it is quite clear that radial nodes are 3D spherical surfaces with constant radius, like for s orbitals.
Analogically, a constant angle of angular nodes leads to a 3D plane intersecting the coordinate origin, like for p orbitals.
Therefore,
- radial nodes = spherical nodes
- angular nodes = planar nodes
For higher values of n and l quantum numbers, nodes are collection of radial and angular nodes, or nodal spherical surfaces and planes.
As wave functions do not have sharp boundary, but converge to zero values in infinity, the intersection of an atom and a nodal plane is – mathematically – the nodal plane. Practically the conventional size of atoms.
Poutnik
- 41,273
- 3
- 49
- 106
-
could you please differentiate nodal plane and angular node or radial node and nodal surfaces by graphics – Piyush Baweja Sep 06 '22 at 07:09
-
I can, but I will not until you read my answer properly. As it is there in more than 1 instance. – Poutnik Sep 06 '22 at 07:11
-
sorry i want to say differentiate them by the use of 3D graphics – Piyush Baweja Sep 06 '22 at 07:14
-
1Do you need to be provided by 3D graphics to differentiate a plane and a spherical surface? Or to differenciate 2 identical planes or 2 identical spherical surfaces ? – Poutnik Sep 06 '22 at 08:05
-
1Have you ever tried the picture section of Google search for wave function radial angular nodes ? – Poutnik Sep 06 '22 at 08:31