Electrons #3: Electronic Orbitals, Part I

Watch the following video to learn about and help you understand the electronic structure of atoms.

• 1st video has a good overview of the whole process.

• 2nd video explains the techniques and vocabulary chemists use to talk about electrons and their strange behavior as they move around the nucleus.

• Click on the following link to read about electron orbitals and electron configurations.

                         http://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/properties/atomorbs.html

• Look at the following two pictures.  The first is a simplified color-coded representation of the s, p, d, and f sublevels and the 1, 3, 5, and 7 orientations (orbtials) that each one has respectively.  The second picture shows some of the same orbitals as they really are, probability density plots of the electron's wave function.