Orbitals and Lobes

[Reina Robles 2B]

Are orbitals the same as lobes? In the textbook and lecture an atom's structure is usually described as shell --> subshell --> orbital, but where do lobes fit into this? Thanks.

[Kaitlyn Ang 1J]

To my understanding you can think of them the same way, the weird balloon shapes that surround the origin.

Also, I did google "electron orbitals vs lobes" for help answering this problem, and maybe it's because I'm on chem community so much, but the first google search was a post from chem community XD

[Jasmine Fendi 1D]

I think that an orbital is the probability description of where an electron can be found, and the four basic types of orbitals are designated as s, p, d, and f. To my understanding, lobes are more specific areas within the orbitals in which there is a high probability of finding an electron.

[Alexa Hernandez 3k]

I believe orbitals is the overall mathematical function while lobe refers to a more specific part within the orbital.