4 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology
Atoms in molecular bonds are oscillating at high speeds, while subatomic particles jostle around at near the speed of light, so how fast would each of those oscillate and jostle when molecules are chilled to below freezing and when super chilled to near absolute zero?
Comment by 095179005 at 12/03/2025 at 20:27 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Electrons still orbit the nucleus at absolute zero.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/5vqu1j/how_do_electrons_behave_at_absolute_zero/
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1m2qzz/do_electrons_move_at_absolute_zero/
Temperature is atomic jiggling, referring to the motion of the atom itself, not the electrons.
The electrons motion is fixed at certain values, and this is independent of the vibrations of the atom (and atomic vibrations = temperature), it would not make any sense to have the electrons stop moving
Comment by hifructosetrashjuice at 16/03/2025 at 16:06 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
it's more useful to think about electrons in orbits as standing waves. for most materials molecular vibrations (IR-range energies) and rotations (microwave energies) do stop as temperature decreases. this is visible as specific heat capacity decreasing in steps as temperature goes down from some 2000K all the way to zero. there's couple of exceptions like liquid helium. also, it's quantum mechanics, so physics, not chemistry