Atomic orbitals [ENDORSED]

[JELCI_BARRAZA_1C]

why is magnetic quantum number important?

[Victoria Draper 1G]

Hi!

The magnetic quantum number is important because it tells us about the orbital that an electron occupies and also identifies the total number of orbitals there are along with their position within a subshell. For example, the p-subshell, whose angular momentum number (l) is 1, has three possible orientations of orbitals, since there are three values for the magnetic quantum number (-1, 0, and 1). The d-subshell, however, has an angular momentum number of 2, and therefore has 5 possible orientations of orbitals give by the values of the magnetic quantum number (-2, -1, 0, 1, 2). Overall the magnetic quantum number helps break down the subshell further by defining the number of orbitals within the subshells that electrons can fill.

Hope this helps!

[Kimberly Santander3L]

A magnetic quantum number tells us the orbital an electron is occupying. It provides us with the amount of orbitals the electron has and the sub-shells.

[Justin Lai 1C]

It's also interesting because s has a magnetic quantum number of 0. And there's only one orbital for s because it is the orbital with symmetrical e- density. However p would have magnetic quantum numbers of -1, 0, and 1 because it has orbitals in the orientation of xy, yz. xz that line up on those nodal planes.