system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I just had a friend tell me that the same equation used to find the escape velocity of Earth is the same equation used to find the velocity an electron needs to break out of an orbital. Does this mean the force holding an electron in an orbital is similar to the force of gravity on Earth?

If the same equation is used for both problems, then i imaginne something has to be the same or similar for that to work. The only thing I could think of is the forces being the same or similar. Is my assumption correct?
gpt
Yeah classical physics does not correctly represent the behaviour of an electron, but both gravitational and electrical forces decrease with the square of the distance. That's why the two calculations have the same form.