Do you remember the electrons flying around the nucleus? According to their energy, electrons actually belong to different clouds; some clouds are higher up some clouds are lower and closer the nucleus. This is not a weather forecast, this is inside the atom!
Imagine the clouds you've seen. Some are light and white, way higher, some are heavy and dark, a bit lower. Just like the clouds we see, there are different kinds of clouds around the nucleus. Some clouds are closer to the nucleus, some are further away, some small some big... The clouds around the nucleus are also called clouds by scientists. Clouds represent the orbitals, certain energy levels of electrons.
There is something mysterious about the electrons though. It is not possible to accurately know an electron's position in the cloud and its speed at once.
Imagine the lovely bird Roadrunner, who loves to pose and crazy about being in all the pictures possible for his Instagram account. In his training he runs so fast around the track that it is impossible to see him and know where he is. He runs super fast that he looks like he is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFWi5lpWbR8
Roadrunner runs super fast that he almost becomes invisible and makes it difficult to see where he is. But Coyote knows that he loves to be photographed. If Coyote wants to know his location, he can bring a camera to the field. As soon as he sees the camera, he stops and poses! There Coyote got him! Now we know where he is, but this time we cannot know how fast he was running, what his speed was.
Electrons are just like this mad-poser Roadrunner. Electrons fly around in the clouds, but it is impossible to know about their position and speed at once. One of the properties, either position or the speed will always remain uncertain. This is called UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE.
Uncertainty principle tells us that we cannot know about the position and the speed of an electron at once.
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