quantum number topic

[Angeline 3E]

i am a little confused with what the quantum numbers do !! so with n it can be any number and it determines energy inside but l is n-1 and m can be the same number as l??

[Patricia Chan 1C]

Hi there! First off, quantum numbers don't necessarily "do" anything but they do play an important role in helping us identifying the position and orientation of electrons. l describes the shape, and it can be any number that is n-1. m labels different orbitals of a subshell (orientation), and the allowed values are from -l to l. Hope this helps!

[Diana Chavez-Carrillo 2L]

n is the principal quantum number that shows the number of shells and indicates the size and energy. l is the angular momentum quantum number that indicates the shape. ml shows the orbitals. ml is not the same number as l because l is the subshells that consist of 0 (s orbital),1 (p orbital),2 (d orbital),...,n-1. For example, if n=3 then by using n-1, l will be 3-1=2 (and thus this means l can be either 0, 1, or 2 (with 2 being the max)). Now, if l=1 for example then ml will be either +1, 0, -1 because the allowed values for ml are l, l-1,..., -l or in this case it's l=(1), l-1 =(1-1=0), and -l = (-1). This is how I interpret the quantum numbers but hopefully, that clarifies some of the quantum numbers for you.

[Caitlyn Tran 2E]

I'm not sure if you will find this explanation useful, but the way I think about it is that quantum numbers almost act like an ID for electrons. Each electron within an atom has a unique set of quantum numbers. These quantum numbers describe the size, shape, orientation, and spin of each electron. More specifically, n can be any number like you said and corresponds with the number of shells, or the size, of an orbital. l describes the shape of the orbital since each number corresponds with different shapes (e.g. when l = 0, the electron has an s-orbital). l can be any number between 0 and n-1, so it does not always have to be n-1. ml can be the same number as l, but it does not have to be. ml can be anything between l and -l. Each number simply tells you an orientation, so if there are three values for ml, then the electron orbital can have three orientations (e.g. px, py, pz). In general, I think it's important to remember these rules for what the quantum numbers can be, but for understanding purposes, just remember that the quantum numbers assigned to an electron are just meant to describe their unique combination of size, shape, and orientation.

[Junwei Sun 4I]

Quantum numbers in general characterize/specify an orbital. Quantum numbers can be looked at as a wave function which has a solution with n, l, ml. "n" determines energy, which means which shell the electrons are in. "l" describes shape of the orbital and can be [0,n-1]. l=0 corresponds s-orbital; l=1 corresponds p-orbitals; l=2 corresponds d-orbitals; l=3 corresponds f-orbitals. S,p,d,f are all called sub-shells. Finally ml labels different orbitals of a sub shell such as px, py, pz and can be from l to -l.