By mes on Skatehive
[](https://3speak.tv/watch?v=mes/27ef8fad) ▶️ Watch on 3Speak - Telegram - YouTube - Summary - Hive Notes - Sections playlist - MES Links In this video, I go over an overview of how spherical harmonics show up in the equations for atomic orbitals and magnetic fields. The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function that mathematically describes a quantum state. Solutions to the Schrödinger equation are standing waves called stationary states or energy eigenstates or "atomic orbitals". I go over the Schrödinger equation for the electron in a hydrogen atom, which is also applicable to hydrogen-like atoms (any atom or ion with a single electron), and the corresponding solution that involves spherical harmonics. Similarly, I show that the spherical harmonics arise also in the equation of magnetic fields, which are derived from the mathematical scalar potential function. The complete magnetic fields (and similarly atomic orbitals in general quantum