Valence is a lighting design project exploring the forms of atomic orbitals as a sculptural object. Electrons as they orbit an atoms nucleus cannot be accurately described as a point-like particle, and instead form standing waves of probable locations where the electron is most likely to be observed around the atom. The shapes of these orbitals are determined by spherical harmonics and the spin of the electrons as described by the Schrödinger equation, and give rise to the precise behavior of each chemical element.
I find the forms of these orbitals to be mesmerizing, and wanted to render them in a scale that we can interact with. I used a MATLAB script to model the wave function of hydrogen and extract an isosurface to export to Rhino and Grasshopper. Then I created a thickened triangular mesh of each lobe of the orbital in order to create some transparency in the form.
