orbitals

[805098281]

What do "px-, py-, and pz" stand for and how are they relevant. I see them listed next to orbitals but I have no idea what they are supposed to convey.

[Samantha Kwock 1D]

"px, py, and pz" describe the orientation of the lobes of the p orbitals. For the px orbital, the two lobes lie along the x axis. For the py orbital, the lobes lie along the y axis. For the pz orbital, the lobes lie along the z axis.

[Kathryn 1F]

They represent which axis the orbital goes around, or which mathematical function is used to form it. In the case of px, the orbital goes about the x axis with the nodal plane on the zy plane.

[Danny Elias Dis 1E]

Can "l" be any number less than "n-1," or must it be n-1?

[Madeline Motamedi 4I]

For the p orbital, we have x, y, and z since those are the three orientations for the p orbital. What happens with the orbitals after this? For the d orbitals we're dealing with 5 axis, so would we have v, w, x, y, z? or do we just use numbers to refer to these orbitals?

[Jonathan Pai 2I]

Danny, l can be any number lower than n-1. For example, if n=4, l is not automatically 3. l can still be 0, 1, 2, or 3.

[Jonathan Pai 2I]

Madeline, the orbitals are based off the axes, so there would be no v or w, only x, y, and z.

In the d orbital, there is xy, xz, yz, x^2y^2, z^2. If you see the pictures in the books, the xy, xz, yz ones have the little orbitals in between those stated axes. So for xy, you can see that the 4 globs are in between the x axis and y axis, but not along/through it. However when it is x^2y^2 or z^2, the globs go through/along that axis.