Yippy Skippy Bohrs Model

2005/11/16W
Ok. I'm pleased to release a new update, the Bohr's Model of the electrons. This consists of a series of concentric rings on the "Standard Electron Oribitals" {SEO} minigraph. Though it updates whenever an element is moused over, it is impossible to see unless it is maximized by first mousing over the SEO minigraph and thenthe Bohrsmodel. When it is fully opened up, you will be able to see the individualelectrons of each orbital. An open circle means that there is no electron present. A solid circle means that an electron is present. The individual rings become grey-ed out when there are no electrons on them, otherwise the s, p, d, and f orbitals are the same red, orange, yellow, and green used by the SEO graph. Mousing over individual rings names the rings and the number of electrons presenton it. Mousing over an element, on the periodic table, the SEO graph, or the data minigraph uses the same space to display the outside-most orbital of the current element on which there are electrons.

Mousing over the SEO graph causes it display the caption "Standard Electron Orbitals". Mousing over the Bohrs model causes the same area to declare "**TRUE** Electron Orbitals". What's the difference? The standard electron orbitals are what we learn from any chemistry book when discussing the four orbital numbers, n, l, m, & s. But this doesn't correctly tell us the electron configuration of neutral atoms in their ground states. For this, I have another internal table that reputedly tells me the exact position of the individual electrons, , , and it isn't always where you might think that they should be. I refer to this as the "**TRUE**" electron orbitals. These "true" electron orbitals, which can be looked up in the Chemical Rubber Company's Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, and elsewhere, are used to determine which electrons get lit up in the Bohr's model.

Though the Bohr's concentric circle model has been deemed incorrect and replaced with strange three dimensional orbital shapes, it is still especially useful for easily visualizing the patterns in which the electrons fill.

Some interesting consequences of using the "true" electron orbitals are seen when watching the Bohr's model while advancing sequentially by AMU.Some elements that fill the orbitals in unexpected patterns include Chromium (Cr 24), Copper (Cu 29), Niobium (Nb 41), Ruthenium (Ru 44), and Rhodium (Rh 45), though several others exist. To see what's strange about these, watch the Bohr's model for these elements and the elements directly before and after them. Some even more bizarre fill patterns occur for Palladium (Pd 46), Actinium (Ac 89), and Thorium (Th 90). These each have one ring with electrons when a prior ring is completely empty. For what it's worth, Palladium's Lewis Diagram shows that it has an unexpectdly full noble gas type octet of outer electrons.

Clues as to which elements will display strangely can also be seen when viewing the periodic table or, better yet, the data minigraph after coloring the table based on the electrons in the 4s, 5s, 6s, or 6d orbital shells. Whereas displaying the "specific orbital fill" for other shells such as 4f result in monotonically increasing graphs, the 4s, 5s, 6s, and 6d shells will become filled and then seemingly arbitrarily drop back down to less then full for one or more elements before jumping back up to filled again. Presumably there's some perfectly good explanation for this, but I can't help thinking "What a wierd universe we live in."

One other thing, until I determine a better way to approach this, even though I have added icons to minimize, grow/shrink, and maximize the Bohr's model, it doesn't operate in quite the same manner as the Element Details, Standard Electron Orbitals, or Minigraph "subwindows" which also have those icons. In particular, minimizing the Bohr's model's parent (the SEO), or rotating the periodic table, force the Bohr's model to minimize even if you had previously told it to stay maximized. Also, there is no coresponding radio button control on the configuration menu. Again, this was because it is a "child" of the Standard Electron Orbitals subwindow. Finally, though there is a minimize button, this does not force the Bohr's model to stay minimized. This is done primarily because it gets reduced to such a small state that it would be impossible to open it back up again.

Finally, I may as well mention that I have a personal favorite configuration for the periodic table. (Does that sound strange? Oh well). It involves having the "Standard Electron Orbitals" graph minimized but having the Bohr's Model maximized. (This requires enlarging the SEO graph, enlarging then maximizing the Bohr's Model, minimizing (not just shrinking) the SEO, and then mousing over the Bohr's model again.) I also like having the table rotated just 4 positions but leaving the Lanthanides/Actinides locked in place. This puts the SEO graph on the right, with the minigraph on the left. What can I say? I love my interactive periodic table!