electrons & quanta

Question 1

How are orbital energies calculated?

Answer 1

only as differences
zero energy is as when e- is as far away from nucleus as possible
thus orbitals are negative

Question 2

the more negative the energy…

Answer 2

the more stable the orbital

Question 3

if an e- has wave properties, how can its behavior be described?

Answer 3

by a wave function, psi, where psi = f(x,y,z)

Question 4

energy of the wave as psi2 is directly is directly proportional to…

Answer 4

the probability of the electron at a given position or the square of the amplitude

Question 5

give the wavefunction conditions.

Answer 5

• normalized, that is the sum of the probabilities over all points must = 1 (i.e. the e- must be somewhere).
• continuous, as is the nature of all waves.
• single-valued, i.e. each set of points only gives one probability (no uncertainty)
• finite, e- is definitely somewhere.

Question 6

the rate of decay decreases with…

Answer 6

increasing n

Question 7

as you move away from the nucleus, the radial part of the wave function…

Answer 7

decays exponentially.

Question 8

what does the angular wave function describe?

Answer 8

orbital shape & relative orientation of orbitals using angular momentum & magnetic quantum eigenvalues from their eigenfunctions.

Question 9

what does the angular wave function describe?

Answer 9

the direction of the orbital

Question 10

what is an orbital?

Answer 10

• probability in space
• can be shown as a probability distribution function
• s, p, d, & f are l, the angular momentum quantum number (shape)
• ml is magnetic quantum number (orientation)