ml in electron configurations

[Anika Scott 3A]

Can someone explain to me how the magnetic quantum number (ml) effects the electron configuration? For instance, when n=2 and l=0, I know that the configuration in 2s, but once I add the ml factor I am not sure what to do.

[Dana Sorensen 1C]

The magnetic quantum number (ml) labels the different orbitals of a subshell. For instance, it could define the px, py, and pz as each one is one of the p orbital subshells and each can hold two electrons. I don't thing we have to write them in the electron configurations though.

[Neelaj Das 3I]

The magnetic quantum number is not directly written in an electron configuration. The magnetic quantum number refers to the specific orbitals within a given subshell, so for instance if l=1, we know ml can equal -1,0, and 1 meaning there are 3 orbitals.

[Lauren Brotman 2F]

ml gives the orientation of the angular momentum. This represents different orbitals of a subshell. For 2s, there is only one possible orbital, and ml must equal 0.

[Wendy Zhao 1I]

Magnetic quantum indicates the different orbitals in a subshell. Its figures could be -l, -l+1, -l+2, ... , 0, ... , l-2, l-1, l. When l is 0, there is only one ml---0. But when l is 1 or more, you have more ml's. For example, when l=1, there is ml=-1 or 0 or -1, corresponding to px, py, pz orbitals.

[ThomasL1L]

The ml simply characterizes one of the orbitals within the sub shell so this would be the 2px orbital or the 3py orbital. That is why it is somewhat correlated to l but not the same.

[Chiara Frank]

Hi! In this case, as l=0, the value for ml would be 0 as well. This is because ml, the magnetic quantum number is dependent on the angular quantum number l, only able to range from -l to l, and in this case only 0. If l was 1, and thus in the p orbital, ml could be -1, 0, or 1. This labels the orbital in the sub-shell. Hope this was helpful!