Answer to Question #279985 in General Chemistry for Lia

Question

1. It describes the angular momentum of an electron represented by arrows.

A. Angular quantum number

B. Spin quantum number

C. Magnetic quantum number

D. Principal quantum number

Answer 1

An explanation of this is that an electron has a magnetic field due to its spin. When electrons that have opposite spins are put together, there is no net magnetic field because the positive and negative spins cancel each other out. The silver atom used in the experiment has a total of 47 electrons, 23 of one spin type, and 24 of the opposite. Because electrons of the same spin cancel each other out, the one unpaired electron in the atom will determine the spin. There is a high likelihood for either spin due to a large number of electrons, so when it went through the magnetic field is split into two beams.

The lines represent how many orientations each orbital has, (e.g. the s-orbital has one orientation, a p-orbital has three orientations) and each line can hold up to two electrons, represented by up and down arrows. An electron with an up arrow means it has an electron spin of $+\frac{1}{2}$ , and an electron with a down arrow means it has an electron spin of $-\frac{1}{2}$