 A very complex differential equation that describes the behavior of an electron in the atom as wave-like.
 Solutions to the SWE are themselves equations, referred to as wave functions (  , psi).
 Each unique electron has its own wave function  , thus theoretically there are 110 (?) current possible solutions to the SWE.
  describes the state of an electron by providing information about it, doing so in the form of Quantum
Numbers. Thus,  provides QUANTUM NUMBERS (n, l, m l
) describing the behavior of the electron.
 If one squares  (  2 ), a function describing the probability of finding the electron about the nucleus is formed. This function is what we call an ORBITAL and is best represented graphically below. Thus,  2
provides ORBITALS describing the probability of finding the electron in the atom.
(a)  2
1s
(the 1s orbital for hydrogen)
(b) The Radial probability graph for the 1s orbital of hydrogen. max. away from nucleus
 As the electron increases in energy, its  2 distributions increase in complexity, giving rise to orbitals of different shapes and an increase of zero probability regions (nodes) in the orbital
90% boundary:
Inside this lies
90% of the probability nodes