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CHEM 121 Studioby Learn4Less · UBC CHEM 121

CHEM 121 glossary

Orbital diagram

A configuration drawn with one box per orbital and an arrow per electron (↑ or ↓ for the two spins). It shows what the superscript notation hides: which electrons are paired and how many are unpaired.

Oxygen: one 2p2p orbital is paired, two hold single electrons.

Example

Oxygen, 1s2 2s2 2p41s^2\,2s^2\,2p^4: the 2p2p set is drawn (↑↓)(↑)(↑), so O has 2 unpaired electrons.