When we discuss the atom, we can take a look at its electronic structure. We're going to say the modern description of the electronic structure of an atom is based on the following principles. First, we have the shell. The shell is the orbit that the electrons take as they travel around the nucleus. Once we go past the shell, we go to our next level within it, the subshell or sublevel. This is the region where a group of electrons in an atom are located within the same shell. Now, what's important here is that the subshells use certain variables. These variables are the letters of s, p, d, and f. Finally, we have our orbit itself. This orbital, this is the region within a subshell where specific electrons can be found. So basically, as we go from shell to subshell to orbital, we're looking more and more into the atom to find the exact location of a particular electron. Now that we've gone over the basic structure of an atom in terms of these three terms, let's click on the next video and let's look at an actual atom.
Electronic Structure - Online Tutor, Practice Problems & Exam Prep
Electronic Structure of the atom is based on the following principles:shell, subshell and orbital.
Electronic Structure
Electronic Structure Concept 1
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Electronic Structure Concept 2
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The goal of revealing the electronic structure of an atom is to help us locate a particular electron. Now, when we take a look at the atom, we're going to say that the black circle that shows the atom represents our shell. The shell gives us the size and energy involved. Once we go past the shell, so we're going to go past the shell, to this blue part here. This blue part here represents our subshell. The subshell gives us the shape of an orbital within a subshell. Okay? So it gives us the shape. Once we go past that, we go into the red portion. This red portion represents our orbital. The orbital itself gives us the orientation of electrons in these in a set of orbitals. And then finally, when we go past that, we go to this green. We know that is an electron, and electrons within an orbital can spin either clockwise or counterclockwise. When we get to the electron, we can examine the spin the electron takes. So when we're talking about electronic structure, the breakdown is we're looking at the atom. The atom, we go past it and we look at its shells. From its shells, we can look at its subshells. Beyond the subshells, we look at its orbitals. And within the orbitals is where we find our particular electron. And we can look at how the electron spins either clockwise or counterclockwise. So this is the whole basic idea of electronic structure. We're examining an atom in hopes of finding an electron and examining how it spins either clockwise or counterclockwise within a particular orbital.
Electronic Structure Example 1
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If the path of an electron within an orbital can be seen as an ellipse, what best describes this image? So, an ellipse, if you didn't know, kind of looks like the number 8. You can draw it vertically or horizontally. And when we're talking about ellipses, it is a shape. Now, which one of the terms do we use to discuss the shape of an orbital? We know that size and energy are based on the shell. Energy level is the same thing as energy level, which is the same thing as shell. Here, "electron" wouldn't be accurate. The answer has to be "subshell". The subshell talks about the shape of a given orbital, and here ellipses will be one of those shapes.
Which term can best describe the electron shown in the following image?