Test #2

[Maggie Doan 1I]

What does degeneracy mean?

[Lauren Ho 2E]

Orbitals that have the same energy levels are called degenerate (same n and l quantum numbers)

[Jchellis 1I]

How many degeneracies can there be?

[Vanadium Wang 4H]

Degenerate means having the same energy. In the context of orbitals it is the number of atomic orbitals in the same subshell. Say the question is, how many degenerate 3p orbitals exist? (Remember: we need to see how many orbitals share the same n and l quantum numbers) If n = 3 and l = 1, ml could be either -1, 0, or 1. Each electron with quantum number ml being -1, 0, or 1 have the same energy based on their quantum numbers n = 3 an l = 1. Therefore, there are three degenerate 3p orbitals that exist.