CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

I'm confused about m and its relationship to electron configurations in general.
Does m influence electron configurations when we write them out? For instance how does m affect Carbon or [He]2s22p2? Where does m become relevant doing orbital problems?

(Claire Woolson Dis. 3J)

There are two m values: ml and ms (l and s are subscripts). ml describes which orbital in a subshell an electron occupies and ms describes the spin.

Depending on which orbital and which subshell the electron is in, ml will have one of these values.
s: ml=o (one possible orbital)
p: ml=-1,0,+1 (px, py, or pz)
d: ml=-2,-1,0,+1,+2
f: ml=-3,-2,-1,0,+1,+2,+3

ms is either +1/2 or -1/2 depending on whether or not the electron is spin up or spin down.