Orbital

a shell isn’t a ring. it’s a shape — and shapes have angles.

morph s to p to d and watch the cloud reshape, then drag two atoms together until the clouds snap into a bond

An electron does not orbit like a planet -- it exists as a probability cloud, and that cloud has a shape. The s orbital is a sphere, with no preferred direction at all. The p orbital is a dumbbell, with two lobes on one axis and a dead zone in between. The d orbital has four lobes, and it is the shape that gives transition-metal gemstones their colour, because light of a specific energy can jump an electron between those lobes. Bring two atoms close enough and their clouds overlap; where they overlap constructively is where the bond actually is, and whether that overlap is head-on or angled is why some molecules are straight and others are bent.

Concepts: quantum-mechanics, atomic-structure.

An interactive you play with one thumb, on Wundr.