Chemistry electronic confugurations

Sunny!!

Im really stuck with this question and hope someone can help

Question from last year

State the number of (1)sub-levels (subshells), (ii) orbitals, occupied by electrons in an argon atom
in its ground state.



In know how to work out the electonic configuaration
1s2, 2s2 2p6, 3s2 3p6

I understand the subshells.

But how do you get the orbitals, i know the answer is 9 but where does that come from?


anyhelp
Greatly appreciated

Boeing777

Sunny!! wrote: »

.

Ok, I've only taken up chemistry in college this year so I am a bit rusty so somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Basically, my understanding is, 'S' orbitals have 1 shell, 'P' orbitals have 3 shells. So, 1s2 (1) + 2s2 (1) + 2p6 (3) + 3s2 (1) + 3p6 (3) = 9 orbitals


Hope this helps.

YoursSincerely

In every P sublevel, you have the px, py and pz orbital, so when you write out the configuration with the orbitals included it looks like this: 1S2, 2S2, 2Px2,2Py2,2Pz2,3S2, 3Px2,3Py2,3Pz2

And thats nine orbitals, hope i explained that okay,

Sunny!!

thanks very much. I get it now