Chemistry 2.7 Electron Configuration (Part 1 of 2)

[cmantop]

I didn't quite understand the idea..... When one says 1 'p' sub-level, one means to say that there are 3 'p' orbitals in it.. and so on... Is this correct? And in the shell "n=2", there are two 's' sub levels and two 'p' sub-levels... naturally there should be 2 's' orbitals and 6 'p' orbitals... Am I right? Or, is the '2' is the sub-level '2s' just a prefix signifying the shell it belongs to?

[IsaacsTEACH]

@cmantop Your first statement is correct, any 'p' sub-level has three p-shaped orbitals in it. However, in n=2, you have a single 's' sublevel, and a single 'p' sublevel. The 's' sublevel has one s-shaped orbital, and the p sublevel has three p-shaped orbitals. ANY orbital, regardless of shape, can hold 2 electrons. Your last statement is correct as well, the 2 in 2s designates the 'shell' or energy level. When you said 2 's' and 6 'p' , you really described number of electrons in the sublevels.

[Morshidul]

Amazing, IsaacsTEACH & khanacademy are my best teachers! :D

[strawhatrobot]

Excellent! you make things very easy. Keep it up please!!