Explain the term ‘quantum number’. Describe the various types of quantum numbers and their significance.
Answers
Answer:
Quantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of a quantum system. There are four quantum numbers, namely, principal, azimuthal, magnetic and spin quantum numbers.
1. Principal Quantum - This number describes the electron levels of an atom. It signifies the size of electron cloud. It can have values such as 1,2,3,4 & so on.
2. Azimuthal Quantum - This number signifies the shape of electron cloud. It can have values from l=0 to l=n-1
3. Magnetic Quantum - this signifies the orientation of electron cloud. It can have values from -l to +l including zero.
4. Spin Quantum - This signifies the spin of electrons can have. It can have values ±1/2 for each value of m.
Quantum Numbers :
These are constants that describe the position of an electron, the behavior of the magnetic field, the Angular momentum of the electron, the spin of an electron around the nucleus, etc.
Types :
There are four types of Quantum Numbers ;
- Principal Quantum Number
It is a constant that tells us about the orbit of an atom in which the electron is present. These orbits are represented by K, L, M, N,...
- Azimuthal Quantum Number
It is a constant that tells us about the sub-shell/ orbit of an atom constituting an electron. These subshells are represented by s,p,d,f, and g...
Also, Angular momentum = h/2π {l(l+1)}
- Magnetic Quantum Number
It is a constant that tells us about the behavior of an electron in a magnetic field. Actually when we apply a magnetic field on an electron then it adopts a different orientation called Orbitals. Thus magnetic Quantum Number gives the number of orbitals present in a sub-shell.
- Spin Quantum Number
It is the constant that tells us about the spin of an electron about its axis.