system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If you slowed an electron down in a vacuum and added a proton to the environment, would it spontaneously form a hydrogen atom?

Or would the electron simply bind to the proton, or penetrate?. If so, then what force is it which compels the electron to accelerate to the appropriate speed to occupy the 1s orbital?

What force is it that results in steric interference between functional groups which often dictate the most energetically favorable three dimensional chemical configuration?
gpt
Yes, as the ground state of the hydrogen atom has 13.6 eV less energy than the separated electron and proton. The force which pulls it in and speeds it up is the coulomb force, as opposite charges attract. The energy difference will be radiated as one or more photons.