Probabilities of Electrons in Orbitals

Asked Apr 25 '18 at 14:38

Active Apr 26 '18 at 11:50

Viewed 51 times

I've heard both of the following:

An orbital is a region where there's a 90% probability of finding an electron
An orbital is a region where an electron spends 90% of its time

Are these essentially the same things? Or which one is correct and why? Edit- I've heard both from veritable sources and only need a confirmation not a precise definition.

edited Apr 26 '18 at 11:50

asked Apr 25 '18 at 14:38

Plusminus

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essentially the same thing – porphyrin Apr 25 '18 at 14:41
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If an electron spends 90% of its time in an orbital, then the probability of finding an electron there is 90%; they're interchangeable in my opinion. Orbitals are where we think electrons exist anyway. – Apr 25 '18 at 14:48
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@KianStevens Like every statement in your comment is incorrect. :/ – Mithoron Apr 25 '18 at 16:26
@Mithoron, can you please tell me what's correct then ? – Plusminus Apr 26 '18 at 17:29
https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/39438/what-exactly-is-an-orbital – Mithoron Apr 26 '18 at 17:33
This is not the definition of an orbital. It is not even a volume/region dimension. – Greg Apr 26 '18 at 23:56

Probabilities of Electrons in Orbitals

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