{"id":30275,"date":"2025-06-21T17:15:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T17:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=30275"},"modified":"2025-06-21T17:15:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T17:15:41","slug":"with-hydrogen-as-an-exception-what-is-the-correlation-between-the-value-of-l-and-the-energy-of-an-electron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/with-hydrogen-as-an-exception-what-is-the-correlation-between-the-value-of-l-and-the-energy-of-an-electron\/","title":{"rendered":"With hydrogen as an exception, what is the correlation between the value of L and the energy of an electron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With hydrogen as an exception, what is the correlation between the value of L and the energy of an electron?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is:<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Correct Answer:<\/strong><br>With hydrogen as an exception, the energy of an electron <strong>increases<\/strong> as the value of <strong>L<\/strong> (the angular momentum quantum number) increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>In hydrogen, energy levels depend only on the principal quantum number <strong>n<\/strong> because hydrogen has only one electron and there is no electron-electron repulsion. The energy levels are degenerate, meaning that all orbitals with the same <strong>n<\/strong> (regardless of <strong>L<\/strong>) have the same energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in atoms with more than one electron, the situation changes due to electron-electron interactions. In these multi-electron atoms, the energy of an orbital depends on both <strong>n<\/strong> and <strong>L<\/strong>. The angular momentum quantum number <strong>L<\/strong> determines the shape of the orbital and, consequently, how close an electron can get to the nucleus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orbitals with lower <strong>L<\/strong> values (like <strong>s-orbitals<\/strong>, L = 0) allow electrons to penetrate closer to the nucleus. This increases the attraction between the electron and the positively charged nucleus, leading to a <strong>lower energy<\/strong>. On the other hand, orbitals with higher <strong>L<\/strong> values (such as <strong>p, d, or f-orbitals<\/strong>, with L = 1, 2, 3 respectively) have more angular momentum and are more likely to be found farther from the nucleus. They experience more shielding from inner electrons and therefore are less tightly bound, resulting in <strong>higher energy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why, for example, the 3d orbital (L = 2) is higher in energy than the 4s orbital (L = 0), even though 3d has a lower principal quantum number. The increased value of <strong>L<\/strong> reduces the electron\u2019s ability to penetrate close to the nucleus, so its energy is raised due to less effective nuclear attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, for atoms with more than one electron, as the angular momentum quantum number <strong>L<\/strong> increases, the energy of the electron also increases, due to reduced nuclear attraction and greater electron shielding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With hydrogen as an exception, what is the correlation between the value of L and the energy of an electron? The correct answer and explanation is: Correct Answer:With hydrogen as an exception, the energy of an electron increases as the value of L (the angular momentum quantum number) increases. In hydrogen, energy levels depend only [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30278,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30275\/revisions\/30278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}