Question

15. What does the term quantized energy mean?

How many quantum numbers are known with respect to atomic orbitals?

Name them and provide their key properties

Answer 1

The term Quantized refers to the exact and well defined quantities, more particularly integral multiples of certain quantities are only allowed.

For example, consider the energy levels(orbits) in an atom, which have certain well defined energies.So, when an electron is considered, it will definetly reside among these well defined orbits only, rather than residing in between the orbits.

There are four Quantum numbers for atomic orbitals
Principal quantum number : This tells about the energy of the orbits, or the orbit in which an electron is residing.It is denoted by 'n'
Azimuthal quantum number : This tells about the orbital angluar momentum, the orbital in which the electron resides e.g : s, p , d, f . It is denoted by 'l'
magnetic quantum number : This tells us about the orientation of the orbital angular momentum (as angluar momentum is a vector quantity)It is denoted by 'm'
spin quantum number : This tells us about the direction of spin of electron, whether clockwise or anticlockwise direction (+1/2 or -1/2) .It is denoted by 's'

These all quantum numbers in short will tell us the exact address of the electron in an atom.