Writing electron configurations [ENDORSED]

[Samantha Pacheco 2K]

When writing out the configuration and there is only 1 electron in the orbital does the spin always have to be an up spin? can it be a down spin?

[Shubham Rai 2C]

I don't think it matters if its positive or negative, but we usually keep it positive as to not get confused while working with more than one electrons in the p, d, and f orbitals. This is because all the electrons must be of the same charge before they start pairing up. But there is probably a much more scientific answer to this question that we probably won't need to know.

[Miriam Sheetz 2B]

I think it will always be spin up. When writing the electron configurations we always go through and do the spin up electrons first and fill in the spin down electrons after all the spin up are full.

[Cade Okohira 4K]

I believe when filling up an orbital, you must fill all orbitals possible with one electron spin before assigning the opposite spin. If there's just one electron, it would be spin up.

[Rami_Z_AbuQubo_2K]

If you remember the box method for an orbital, you might remember starting with spin up in each individual box before you start putting in spin down but it does not matter really. As long as you are consistent, say you start spin down, do not mix up spins in each box.

[Josceline 3J]

Normally in class, they always start filling the boxes with an up spin and if all the boxes get up spins and you still have extras then the second round is when you would use the down spin. I think you should just stick to this because even the book does it this way.