Department of Chemistry - Teaching

Visualisation of an atomic orbital in three dimensions

This applet shows a representation of the wavefunction corresponding to an atomic orbital. The nucleus is at the centre of the large cube, which is subdivided into many smaller cubes. Each small cube is then shaded according to the value of the wavefunction in the middle of that cube: darker shading means a larger value of the wavefunction, with red shading for positive values and blue for negative.

  • Selet the orbital you wish to display using the drop down menu beneath the display
  • Click on "Run" to look at each layer of small cubes in succession
  • Alternatively, move the slider on the left up and down to scroll through the layers


This webpage, and the applet it contains, was developed by Stephen Elliott as part of the web-based resources for the forthcoming First-Year Chemistry, by James Keeler and Peter Wothers, OUP (2008)