Energy of Electron Shell?

Most recent answer: 07/31/2015

Q:
Is it fair to assume an electron shell has infinite energy? If so, where does it come from? If not, how are the electrons moving around the nucleus of the atom?
- Alex
A:

No, there really isn't any "shell" there at all. The shell is just a name for a collection of states that an electron might be in if it happens to be present. Each state has some finite energy. The convention is to call a batch of states with identical or very nearly the same energies a "shell".

As for what electrons are up to in atoms, we've adressed that mant times before, e.g. 

Mike W.


(published on 07/31/2015)