2.19 part d

[Megan Potter 1G]

D states: how many subshells are there in the shell with n=4?

I was under the assumption that n described the size and energy of the orbital. Can someone explain how this correlates with subshells so how you would know the number of subshells with n=4? I'm lost

[Namie Fotion-1E]

so n=number of shells l=the subshell
n and l are related by this: l is any integer from 0 to (n-1)
so if n=4, there would be 4 values of l, or 4 subshells
those values would be 0, 1, 2, 3
It would not be 4 because l maxes out at (n-1)
hope that helps!

[Jack Martinyan 1L]

The value of n determines the possible values for l. For any given shell, the number of subshells can be found by l = 0,.....,n-1. In the case of n=4, l=0,1,2,3. This tells us that there are 4 possible sub-shells (0,1,2,3). When l is 0, then the orbital is s. When l is 1, then the orbital is p. When l is 2, then the orbital is d. When l is 3, then the orbital is f. Since n=4, we are in the 4th energy level. This means that the 4 possible sub-shells are 4s,4p,4d,4f.