Why do we have to use an arbitrary value such as 90% to determine...

Question

Why do we have to use an arbitrary value such as 90% to determine the spatial limitations of an orbital?

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone today. We have the falling problem. True or false because an orbital has no definite boundary. We can use an arbitrary value, such as 97% to provide spatial limitations. So this is actually going to be a true statement. So it's important to know that the probability of finding an electron. So the probability of finding an electron decreases with increasing distance from the nucleus, increasing distance from the nucleus. But it's never zero, it's never zero, meaning it could be where the nucleus is. As a result, there is no definite boundary or size, so there is no definite boundary or size for orbital's. However, we typically are going to imagine an orbital boundary surface and closing the volume where an electron spends 97% of its time there. So the electron is gonna spend 97% of its time in an imaginary an imaginary boundary. And so as we stated before, this is a true statement. Overall, I hope this helped and until next time.

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