Electron Configuration Vocab Flashcards
Atomic radius (
The distance from the nucleus to the outermost electrons of an atom -difficult to define because location of outermost electrons isn’t precisely known -measured in picometers (pm) trillionth of a meter
Atomic number
The number protons in the nucleus of an atom
Aufbau principle (
A rule that electrons will occupy the lowest energy subshell that is available -energy increases as distance from nucleus increases
Chemical family (
A vertical column in the periodic table -elements in the same family have the same number of valence electrons and similar chemical properties
Diagonal rule (
A rule that shows the order in which subshells are filled with electrons -heavier elements do not always follow the diagonal rule exactly
Electron configuration
A description of the shells, subshells, and orbitals occupied by electrons
Hund’s rule (bus rule) (
A rule stating that, within a subshell, electrons will occupy all of the unoccupied orbitals before sharing orbitals -a subshell will never contain an orbital with 2 electrons and another with zero electrons
Orbital (
A region in space occupied by an electron or pair of electrons -a mathematical function that describes the probability of an electron or pair of electrons being found in a particular space
Pauli exclusion principle (
A rule that states that no two electrons can have exactly the same location and state -if two electrons share the same shell, subshell, and orbital, they must have different spins
Period
A horizontal row of the periodic table
She’ll
A particular region where electrons can orbit the nucleus of an atom
Spin (
A property of electrons that causes them to have angular momentum and magnetism -spin is shown with arrows on OD (up is clockwise, down is counterclockwise) -electrons don’t actually spin, but these properties (angular momentum and magnetism) arise as if they did -magnetism of materials such as iron is explained by a coordination of electron spins
Subshell (
A subdivision of a shell: designated s, p, d, and f -s: one orbital -p: three orbital -d: five orbitals -f: seven orbitals
