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Topic: How can you tell which subshells have higher or lower energies?  (Read 2231 times)

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Offline unsavedhero

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How can you tell which subshells have higher or lower energies?
« on: November 08, 2013, 04:48:27 PM »
 How is 4S lower energy than 3D. Makes no sense? I was trying to figure out the electron configuration for nickel and i got 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 and it all added up to 28 just like the atomic number of Ni. However apparently the actual configuration is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3D8
I dont understand!!!!! Why would they skip 3D and go to 4s instead???? especially since 3D can hold a total of 10 electrons which would give us a total of 28 without the need for the 4th electron level. PLEASE HELP

Offline Corribus

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Re: How can you tell which subshells have higher or lower energies?
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2013, 04:53:16 PM »
The 4S orbital is often lower energy because it is less shielded from the nuclear core charge by inner shell electrons than the 3D orbital is, owing to its larger degree of penetration.
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

Offline unsavedhero

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Re: How can you tell which subshells have higher or lower energies?
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2013, 05:11:59 PM »
..yeah.... anyway is there a way to tell which shells are of lower energy? is there some sort of pattern? I always thought that configurations would just follow the pattern of 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 4f14 lol. Like for example the 3d shell would be filled to it's maximum of 10 before proceeding to the 4s shell..

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