I enjoyed checking out www.chemguide.co.uk. It has an interesting explanation of the difference between orbits and orbitals. It presents it like this: it is a common misconception that electrons rotate in orbit around the circumference of an atom's nucleus, the way a planet orbits the sun. Astronomers are able to precisely define the orbit of say, Earth around the Sun. In order to do this, they use the precise information like the location of the Earth, the direction it is heading and it's speed. However, that information can not be obtained of an electron. So it is actually impossible at this time for physicists to plot an electrons orbit. That is why they use orbitals which may be defined as a region of space in which any particular electron may be found.
More specifically: "An orbital is just a bit of space where there is a 95% chance of finding that particular electron. If an electron is in a particular orbital, you know about its energy - but there is no way of knowing how it is moving around within that orbital."
It seems to me that there is way more that scientists DON'T know then they DO know. TO avoid confusion about orbits I think it would be better for students to be told, electrons tend to occupy levels surrounding the nucleus but because we don't know the exact location, direction and speed of electrons we can't predict its movement around the nucleus. But thems hard words for smartypants....."we don't know".
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