Why do subshells and orbitals exist? I'm just a curious high school student. Sorry if this sounds dumb.
How exactly did the concept of atomic subshells and orbitals come about? And why exactly are there n-1 subshells and 2l+1 orbitals?
Based on what I've heard, these things were a step forward after the Sommerfeld atomic model. But orbitals???
Again, sorry if this sounds dumb.
I just want to know how these things came about.
Very nice question. I also had the same question. These orbitals are nothing more than functions (wavefunctions). They are solutions to Schrodinger's equation, a second order differential equation. So you solve the equation and the solutions you get are determined by $4$ numbers also called quantum numbers $n, l, m_l, m_s$. A shell consists of all orbitals with same value of $n$ whereas a subshell consists of all orbitals with same values of $n$ and $l$. As others have pointed out the solutions are exactly only for the hydrogen and hydrogen like atoms.