Magnetic Quantum Number

[Natalie Gibson 1c]

Hi there! I am still a little confused on the magnetic quantum number m, and how that aligns with orientation. I know the example that Dr. Lavelle gave in class, he used -1, 0, 1 || Px, Py, Pz, but lets say for instance our angular momentum was 2 so then possible values of m = -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, how would these correspond to different orientations/axis?

[Ethan Famas 1H]

If l = 2, that means you would be referring to the d-orbitals. And yes, there would be 5 m_l values, each of which would correspond to the five kinds of d-orbitals: d_xy, d_xz, d_yz, d_z², d_x²-y². (Which number would correspond to which orbital in specific will be specified on any problem, if I recall correctly.)

[Kevin Zhang 3K]

The same can be applied to f-orbitals but Professor Lavelle said to not worry about them.

[Gianna Sciole 2F]

these would correspond to the d orbital, where the orientation of the electron could be in the -2 (dxy), -1 (dyz), 0 (dzx), 1 (dx^2-y^2), 2 (dz^2). (someone posted a really good diagram under the question that looked super helpful).