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I got a question about 6.61 (14th & 13th ed.), 6.55 (12th ed.),
6.53 (10th and 11th ed.). <br>
This question asks which are impossible combinations of n and <i>l</i>.
Hopefully <br>
you did this problem and understood there is no 1p or 2d. <br>
<br>
I'm sending this to ask you about something like an 8s or 6f. Do
they exist?<br>
Of course they do. Think of things we covered in class (and you'll
see it in the<br>
EMS exp). Hydrogen has 1 electron in the 1s subshell in its ground
state. Are<br>
there other levels, such as the 2nd (n=2), 3rd (n=3), etc.? Of
course there are. <br>
There's simply no electrons present in those shells until the 1s
electron is <br>
excited there by an input of energy to get an excited state. Just
because there <br>
are no electrons in an 8s or 6g or 10d, etc., subshell in the ground
states of <br>
any of the known elements doesn't mean the subshells don't exist.
Remember, <br>
there was a time we didn't even know about the elements in the
bottom two <br>
rows with electrons in the 4f and 5f. Does that mean they didn't
exist? Of <br>
course they did, we just hadn't discovered elements with electrons
in those <br>
subshells yet. We don't technically "see" these unoccupied orbitals
until we<br>
excite an electron to them. Then we know they are there and can
determine<br>
the energy of this orbital and what type of orbital it is.<br>
<br>
I hope this clears up any questions about this. <br>
<br>
Dr. Zellmer
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