Question

Number of electrons in 21Sc with L=1​

Answer 1

Answer:

There are $12$ electrons with $l = 1$ in each $\rm _{21}Sc$ atom in its ground state.

Explanation:

The azimuthal quantum number (with symbol $l$) of an electron in an atom specifies the type of the orbital that contains this electron.

For example:

• $l = 0$ corresponds to an $s$ orbital.
• $l = 1$ corresponds to a $p$ orbital.
• $l = 2$ corresponds to a $d$ orbital.

The question is asking for the number of electrons with $l = 1$ in each $\rm _{21}Sc$ atom. Because $l = 1\!$ corresponds to $p$ orbitals, this question is equivalently asking for the number of electrons in $p\!$ orbitals in one such atom.

Find the electron configuration of a ground-state $\rm _{21}Sc$ atom:

$1s^{2}\; 2s^{2}\; 2p^{6}\; 3\, s^{2}\; 3\, p^{6}\; 3d^{1}\; 4s^{2}$.

In other words, there are $12$ electrons in $p$ orbitals in total in a ground-state $\rm _{21}Sc$ atom in total; $l = 1$ for each of these electrons because of the

Therefore, a ground-state $\rm _{21}Sc$ atom would include $12$ electrons with $l = 1$.