probability cloud

A distribution through a region of space of the probability of detecting a given particle, such as an electron in orbit around the nucleus of an atom, determined by the wave function of the particle.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

The probability cloud of a macroscopic object would in any case spread by only a tiny amount in a few seconds of flight.

The renewal of creation and the presence of Christ

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