Atomic orbital many modes of the vibrating disk form patterns that trace the various shapes of atomic orbitals. The basic reason for this correspondence lies in the fact that the distribution of kinetic energy and momentum in a matter-wave is predictive of where the particle associated with the wave will be. That is, the probability of finding an electron at a given place is also a function of the electron's average momentum at that point, since high electron momentum at a given position tends to "localize" the electron in that position, via the properties of electron wave-packets (see the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
Particle in a box which is proportional to formula_44. The variance in the position is a measure of the uncertainty in position of the particle: The probability density for finding a particle with a given momentum is derived from the wavefunction as formula_46. As with position, the probability density for finding the particle at a given momentum depends upon its state, and is given by where, again, formula_33. The expectation value for the momentum is then calculated to be zero, and the variance in the momentum is calculated to be: The uncertainties in position and momentum (formula_50 and formula_51) are defined as being equal