In the ground state of an atom of silver (Ag), how many electrons will there be with the quantum number l = 1?
To determine the number of electrons with a given quantum number 'l' in the ground state of an atom, you need to understand the quantum mechanical rules for electron filling.
In the ground state of an atom, the electrons occupy different energy levels or orbitals. These orbitals are labeled using quantum numbers, including the principal quantum number (n), the azimuthal quantum number (l), and the magnetic quantum number (ml).
The azimuthal quantum number (l) defines the shape of the orbital and ranges from 0 to (n-1). The values of 'l' correspond to different subshells: 0 = s, 1 = p, 2 = d, and 3 = f.
For the ground state of an atom of silver (Ag), the atomic number is 47 (since silver has 47 electrons). To determine the electron configuration, you can use the Aufbau principle, which states that electrons fill orbitals in order of increasing energy.
For 'l = 1', which corresponds to the p subshell, the maximum number of electrons it can hold is 6 (2l + 1). This means that the p subshell can accommodate a maximum of 6 electrons.
In the ground state electron configuration of silver (Ag), we start by filling the lower energy levels first. The first two electrons will occupy the 1s orbital, followed by the 2s orbital. Then, the remaining three electrons will be placed in the 2p subshell.
Therefore, in the ground state of an atom of silver (Ag), there will be 3 electrons with the quantum number 'l = 1'.