Quantum Numbers

[Asian]

3 Questions:

 

1. Im confused on how the principle quantum numbers are related to the orientation of the sublevels, and energy levels.

 

2. I also dont understand why an s sublevel can only have 1 orbital, a p sublevel can only have 3 orbitals, a d sublevel can only have 5 orbitals, etc.

 

3. How can we tell wther or not an electron is in the ground or excited state based on electron configs.

[swansont]

The sublevels pertain to angular momentum, and that's quantized. The Pauli exclusion principle tells you all the electrons must have quantum number different.

 

S has zero angular momentum. There's only one way to have zero angular momentum

 

P orbitals have one unit of angular momentum, as projected along one axis. That can be up (1), perpendicular (0) or down (-1), for a total of 3.

 

d orbitals have 2 units, so there are 5 possibilities: 2,1,0,-1,-2

[Asian]

im fairly confused with my notes. they say that a principal quantum number is equal to n, and they have integral values f 1-7 (indicating which electron orbital they are in). They then say that the quantum number can have integral values of (n-1), and says that 0=s sublevel, 1=p sublevel, 2=dsublevel, and 3=f sublevel. so wat if the prinsipal quantum number was 6. 6-1=5. i dont understand which sublevel that would correspond to.

 

 

-thanks for any help.

[swansont]

If you have n=6, then you can have elect6rons in up to 5 sublevels. There is a particular order in which they are filled, that puts them in the lowest energy state. Just knowing n=6 doesn't give you enough information to tell you what sublevel the electron is in, it only tells you what sublevels are possible.

[Asian]

okay thanks for the help. i have a midterm tomorrow thats why im asking these questions. one more thing. when determining if a covalent bond is polar or not u look at the electronegativities. in order for it to be polar there has to be a great difference in electronegativity, but how much does that quanitiy have to be essentially.

[MulderMan]

Generally speaking, a bond is polar between two atoms with a eneg difference between 0.5 and 2.

[Asian]

if the energy level equaled n=4. and the question how many electrons could this sublevel hold. would u use 2n^2. so therefore it would be 32 electrons?

[little guy]

yes, there are 32 in the n=4 level (not sublevel, sublevels=orbitals which are divided into s,p,d,f, etc, I don't know what comes next) so yes you would use 2n^2=32

 

your L Q# (Azimuthal) would be the sublevel, btw