text: The correct way to think of an electron around an atomic nucleus is to think of an electrostatic "potential well". The electron is trapped inside the well, so there is no need for the electron to revolve or spin around the nucleus. However, the electron does have angular momentum, but this is not the classical angular momentum you are used to (because electrons are point particles and do not have physical extension like a ball rotating about its center of mass). For an electron, its angular momentum are quantized, and also include a "spin" component that has nothing to do with "spinning" around an axis, but does have something to do with orientation. Also, in terms of picturing the electron around the atomic nucleus, it is useful to think of it as a cloud, smeared and surrounding the nucleus. But what kind of cloud is it? This obviously is not a cloud of gas, rather the cloud metaphor is to denote the fact that we do NOT know where the electron is at any given moment. This has to do with Hisenberg's Uncertainty Priniple. If we knew exactly where it is, then we would have no idea what momentum it has, which implies that the electron would gain energy and escape the nucleus.\n\nSo to answer your question, "what will happen if electrons do not revolve around the nucleus?" The electron may escape the nucleus if it receives the right amount of energy. For example, a photon or light of a certain frequency can collide with the electron and impart its energy to the electron and thus causes the electron to escape the nucleus. This is called the Photo-Electric Effect (as discovered by Einsteinand winning him a Nobel Prize).\n\n"Where does the energy in spinning electrons come from?" The electrons trapped inside the potential well of an atomic nucleus must be in certain quantum states that correspond to a certain amount of energy. This corresponds to the binding energy of the electron to the nucleus, which is also the energy required in order for the electron to escape the nucleus.\n\nAs a side note, the most "accepted" view of an electron among  quantum physicists is that the electron is a "wave packet". The wave packet is a mathematical representation of the probability of finding the electron at some position (x,y,z) and at time, t.