Electron orbit harnessed

[zombie]

From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero. So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron, to create a perpetual motion machine? and unlimited energy?

 

So - What's the current reason for the inability to invent something that can harness the motion of the electron? (not the charge of the electron, or magnetic field, or whatever)

 

If an electrons motion can be stopped other than the atom being at absolute zero, how?

 

Even though the motion is very small, with the quintillions of atoms in a grain of sand, you could probably produce enormous amounts of unlimited energy.

[swansont]

From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero. So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron, to create a perpetual motion machine? and unlimited energy?

 

So - What's the current reason for the inability to invent something that can harness the motion of the electron? (not the charge of the electron, or magnetic field, or whatever)

 

If an electrons motion can be stopped other than the atom being at absolute zero, how?

 

Even though the motion is very small, with the quintillions of atoms in a grain of sand, you could probably produce enormous amounts of unlimited energy.

 

The "motion" of the electron — this tends to lose meaning at the scale where quantum mechanics holds — does not cease at absolute zero. Temperature is related to center-of-mass atomic/molecular motion only.

 

We harness the energy of electrons all the time; a "neon" light, for example, uses photons from transitions between electron states. But once the electron is in the ground state of its system, no more energy can be extracted from that system.

[Bob_for_short]

... So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron...?

 

Fortunately not, otherwise we would easily obtain a neutral system of a zero size (not atoms) so all atoms constituing us would collapse to give away their energy to somebody who would easily collapse itself.

[Edtharan]

From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero. So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron, to create a perpetual motion machine? and unlimited energy?

 

So - What's the current reason for the inability to invent something that can harness the motion of the electron? (not the charge of the electron, or magnetic field, or whatever)

 

If an electrons motion can be stopped other than the atom being at absolute zero, how?

 

Even though the motion is very small, with the quintillions of atoms in a grain of sand, you could probably produce enormous amounts of unlimited energy.

Electrons don't move around in an "Orbit" in an atom. This is the problem that occurs when teachers try to explain quantum theory to students that don't understand probability functions (I don't really understand them either, but I know enough to know I don't understand them very well ).

 

As best as I can put it: Particles are not exactly as we think of them. We are told in school that they are like little balls spinning around and bouncing off each other. Unfortunately they are not at all like that. In fact, there is nothing that we have ever experienced that could be used as a good analogy to what particles are really like.

 

The best that can be said is that they are like waves and particles depending on how they interact with their surroundings. But even this is not really good as what they are is something that is not a wave or a particle, but something that interacts like they are depending on the interaction.

 

When an electron is bound to an atom, it is acting more like a wave. Specifically it is acting more like a wave that has constraints.

 

Think of a guitar string. When you pluck the string it vibrates, that is there is a wave that travels along the string. However, not any wave can exist. Because the string is constrained at either end, the string vibrates at particular frequencies. This is the note that you hear.

 

In a similar way, the wave of the Electron is constrained by the atom it is bound to. Firstly, it can't get too far from it as it is attracted to the positive charge of the nucleus, but other forces (The Uncertainty principal IIRC) force it away from the nucleus.

 

The Wave of the electron (which describes it probability of where it is) is forced by these constraints (among others) into what is though of as "Orbits" but are really nothing at all like an orbiting planets.

[dirtyamerica]

electricity

[John Cuthber]

"From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero."

No, even at absolute zero it keeps moving- if it stopped then the uncertainty of its momentum would be zero and therefore the uncertainty of its position would be infinite. It wouldn't be there any more for any meaningful deffinition of "there".

This is, in effect, a variation of zero point energy.

[J.C.MacSwell]

From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero. So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron, to create a perpetual motion machine? and unlimited energy?

 

So - What's the current reason for the inability to invent something that can harness the motion of the electron? (not the charge of the electron, or magnetic field, or whatever)

 

If an electrons motion can be stopped other than the atom being at absolute zero, how?

 

Even though the motion is very small, with the quintillions of atoms in a grain of sand, you could probably produce enormous amounts of unlimited energy.

 

Bottom line: Remove what energy is there and you have no energy left.

 

Capiche?

[Mr Skeptic]

From what I understand Electrons orbit a nucleus, and the only way to stop it is for it to be at absolute zero.

 

That won't stop it.

 

So if the electron is in constant motion, and unable to be stopped, wouldnt it be possible to someday harness that motion of the electron, to create a perpetual motion machine? and unlimited energy?

 

Nope, to harness the energy you would need to slow it down or reduce it's potential energy, and you can do neither of those when it is already at its minimum.

[Horza2002]

Even at absolute zero, electrons are still very mobile...and they don't exactly orbit the nucleus...are better way to think of it is that an electron situtated somewhere near the nucleus of the atom depending on its energy and set of quantum numbers.

 

As stated above, MRI scanners, neon lights, infared detectors, chrlophyl all use electrons to aquire a certain amount of energy from a system.