you know how you can just plug quantum numbers into the schrödinger equation and get a bunch of pretty electron orbital pictures ? wouldn’t it be so much easier to think about quantum numbers in terms of a picture like this ?:

you know, a series of enclosing pyramids, where each subsequent pyramid (1) contains those preceding and (2) is of one extra dimension than the last ? then the n, l, m, s that usually give the orbital “address” in terms of:
n -> primary number (or energy level)
l -> angular / orbital / azimuthal number
m (+/-) -> magnetic number
s -> spin (up or down)
would instead mean:
in the nth pyramid (which is of n dimensions)…
on the line from the l (+1) th axis…
to the mth axis…
on the s side of the l (+1) th dimension…
and the +/- side of the mth dimension
of course that means we’d have to accept there are more than three dimensions, but WAS THERE EVER REALLY ANY DOUBT ? pictures on the internet show most orbitals are disjoint — how else would the electrons slip from one region to another without the old end around on apparently three dimensions ? who knows, maybe the atomic atmosphere is a latticework of baby wormholes, electrons shooting through tunnels like rabbits disappearing into a den then reappearing elsewhere, or something like that.
hey, look, i made a huge concession admitting only the first and second dimensional “nodes” are worthy of orbitals — corners and edges only — so i ain’t a hater on three dimensions. can’t fight truth, you know ? i kinda think the first two dimensions are very spatial, then the next seven are useful for things like sensory perception (color, notes, moods), personality, thoughts, portals, etc. after that harmonic waves from ½x obscure whatever distinction might have registered from even higher dimensions, then you’re back to dimensions three through nine in another “octave.” whatever though, def speculating pretty hard there.
i have a particular type of dream sometimes where i’m living in a video game. it’s like zelda or even more like mario64 from when n64 was new and it’s super exciting — the kind of game where you go on various adventures in a mostly random order of your choosing and collect stars or other tokens for your accomplishments. but there are some places you can’t go unless you collect enough stars, it doesn’t particularly matter where you got the stars, you just have to get enough before you can go there.
it seems to me these dreams are a surrogate for intuiting the universe — that’s kind of what it feels like. same sense of satisfaction for each perceived revelation, but then there are really special places only unlocked by collecting enough other stars elsewhere. not a linear progression by any means, just the universe deciding you collected enough so here you go, here’s an extra special treat. come to think of it, that’s also like the x files used to be, when after a bunch of one-off episodes that were pretty good you got a really sweet one about cancer man that contributed to the long running plot and that was oh so satisfying. carmen san diego back on the apple ii e might have been the same thing, too, but that was a while ago.
as for why this pyramid thing works with the orbitals — i have no idea. i’ll keep thinking about it — you should too — unfortunately that’s a star i just haven’t collected yet.
the last thing i was just thinking — if pyramids are central to particles and perception, do you think the ancient egyptians knew this and that’s why they buried their pharaohs deep in the middle of super big ones ?