what exactly are the purposes for an electron orbit and how it affects the atom?
We have to be careful about how we use the word ‘orbit’ when talking about the atom. When the word orbit is used on the provincial exam, it is better to think of it as meaning energy level. That is, a region of space surrounding a nucleus, in which the electrons have a certain amount of energy. The lowest energy level can have two electrons and the next one up can hold eight. The electrons don’t fly around the nucleus like a fast moving particle. They just exist in all parts of the energy level all at once. Counting the number of electrons in the energy levels tells us about how the atom can react. For example, oxygen has 6 electrons in its second energy level. It can hold two more electrons in this orbital, which tells us that oxygen is likely to form an ion with a minus two charge. Neon, which has 8 electrons in a full orbital is not expected to form an ion at all. I would stay away from the term orbit. How did ‘orbit’ come into use? The Earth and other planets orbit the sun, which m
