system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do electrons not get sucked into the nucleus of the atom?

If an electron is negatively-charged and a proton is positively-charged, why does the electron continuously orbit around the nucleus rather than attract to the proton and crash into the nucleus?

What force is keeping them separate and what force is perpetually propelling the electron in continuous orbit?
gpt
Fundamentally, the electron is not a particle that circles the nucleus in a particular path. It’s a quantum object that’s ‘smeared’ across a region of space around the nucleus. By nature, it tries to resist being confined to a small specific location, which it would need to do to fall into the nucleus.

“The electron orbits the nucleus” is an introductory metaphor useful for teaching the initial concept of the atom to children, but you can’t carry it very far before it breaks down, due to the profound weirdness of Quantum Mechanics.