Hydrogen orbitals

An electron has no orbit. What can be drawn is a point density: every dot is one sample of |ψ|², one possible place to find the electron.

Switch from 1s to 2p or 3d and the shape changes immediately. Radial nodes come from zeros of R_nl(r); angular nodes come from the spherical harmonics. The total number of nodes is n − 1.

Mean radius grows fast with n: 1.5 a₀ for 1s, 5 a₀ for 2p, 10.5 a₀ for 3d. Colour marks the sign of ψ (its phase), not charge.