Diagonal Orbitals

[Madeline Lequang 1G]

Today at the first review session, Gail kind of made this chart where she put the energy levels, put the corresponding orbitals next to it in a row, and then proceeded to draw diagonal arrows. I don't really understand what that meant, so could somebody explain it again please?

[Beatrice Petelo 1F]

1s2
2s2 2p6
3s2 3p6 3d10
4s2 4p6 4d10
5s2 5p6 5p10

This diagram tells you the order of filling out orbitals on the energy level diagram or electron configurations. For example, when you draw out the diagonal arrows, you would get 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s2, 3p6, 4s2, 3d10, 4p6, etc. You don't really need this diagram, as the periodic table is already structured in this order. Hope this helped!