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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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