|Nov17-04, 07:09 PM||#1| Why are orbitals called s, p, d, and f?
I know how they work I was just wondering how did they get that
specific abbreviation? |Nov17-04, 07:27 PM||#2| I asked this in
chem. class also. I was wondering why it wasn't a, b, c, d,
instead of s, p, d,.. My teacher said,"I don't know!"
**Although, she's not the brightest teacher** Not as an insult,
just a opinion. |Nov17-04, 08:38 PM||#3| They stand for sharp,
prinicpal, diffuse, and fundamental. They arise from an
antiquated understanding of emission spectra. Spectroscopists
didn't have a good idea of what was happening with the atoms
themselves, so they tried to group the spectra they observed.
When we got a better understanding of orbitals, the names stuck
around. |Nov20-04, 11:01 AM||#4| Electrons are attracted to
protons, but repell electrons. So, instead of all the electrons
being bunched up right next to the nucleas, they orbit around
the nucleas in shells. These shells can sometimes contain sub-
shells. For example, the first shell