What is the maximum number of orbital angular momentum electron states in the \(n=2\) shell of a hydrogen atom? (Ignore electron spin.)

Short Answer

Expert verified
The maximum number of orbital angular momentum electron states in the \(n=2\) shell of a hydrogen atom, ignoring electron spin, is 4. This is calculated by finding the allowed values of the angular momentum quantum number (l) and the magnetic quantum number (m_l) for the given principal quantum number (n). In this case, there is 1 allowed state for \(l=0\) and 3 allowed states for \(l=1\), resulting in a total of 4 states.

Step by step solution

01

Find the allowed values of the angular momentum quantum number (l)

For a given principal quantum number n, the allowed values of the angular momentum (l) quantum number are \(0,1,2,...,n-1\). In this case, since the principal quantum number \(n=2\), the allowed values for angular momentum quantum number are \(l=0\) and \(l=1\).
02

Determine the allowed magnetic quantum numbers for each angular momentum value (l)

For each value of the angular momentum (l), the magnetic quantum number (m_l) ranges from \(-l\) to \(+l\), including 0. So, we will determine the allowed magnetic quantum numbers for \(l=0\) and \(l=1\): - For \(l=0\), the only possible magnetic quantum number is \(m_l=0\). - For \(l=1\), the possible magnetic quantum numbers are \(m_l=-1, 0, +1\).
03

Count the total number of orbital angular momentum electron states

Now that we have the allowed magnetic quantum numbers for each angular momentum value, we can count the total number of orbital angular momentum electron states. 1. For \(l=0\), there is 1 allowed state (\(m_l=0\)). 2. For \(l=1\), there are 3 allowed states (\(m_l=-1, 0, +1\)). Adding them together, we have a total of \(1+3=4\) orbital angular momentum electron states for a hydrogen atom in the \(n=2\) shell, ignoring electron spin.

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