At this point I think it would be nice to get a little more background on all this apparent weirdness. Here are some videos which will give us some perspective. This first one is just a short reminder of the atom's physique.
This next video gives some historical, as well as systematic, perspective. Notice J. J. Thomson's plum pudding model of the atom at the very beginning. I was amused by one undergraduate course video I watched, where an MIT chemistry professor admitted she had never seen plum pudding.
This last video is a link. (I couldn't get the video. Just click on View) It shows a simple experiment which illustrates Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. This is pretty important. Briefly, (for a particle of matter) it says that a particle's position and momentum can not be simultaneously and accurately measured. It is not the fault of the measuring device. It is an intrinsic property of nature. Position and momentum can not even be defined simultaneously to a precise value.
By the way, this week promises to be profusely pleasurable and provocative. If you have a particular friend or relative who enjoys such pleasures, please tell (or email or tweet or whatever) them to look up the site. (For example, I don't have Martin's or Kevin's or John's email address.) I think anyone can become a follower just by having a google account and clicking 'follow this blog.'
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Heisenberg probably went for a drive outside of Munich and was stopped by a traffic cop. "Do you know how fast you were going?" asked the policeman. Heisenberg replied, "No, but I know where I am."
Quantum physicists are notoriously poor at sex. When they find the position, they can't find the momentum, and when they find the momentum, they can't find the position.
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