Electrons occupying a subshell [ENDORSED]

[804991762_4A]

How can you find how many electrons can occupy a subshell with a given value of L?

[Alicia Yu 1A]

Given l (the type of subshell), you can use it to find the magentic quantum number ml=-l...0...+l. This number divides the subshell into individual orbitals (s,p,d,f) which hold the electrons; there are 2l+1 orbitals in each subshell. Thus the s subshell has only one orbital, the p subshell has three orbitals, etc.
Because each orbital can hold 2 e-, the s-orbitals can hold 2 electrons, p-orbitals can hold 6, and d-orbitals can hold 10, for a total of 18 electrons.

A general formula you can follow is 2n^2 to find the number of e- in each subshell.