# science **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science/233894 "2004-03-12T14:32:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hawk27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a8b319/32.png) [@hawk27](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawk27)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science/233894/1 "2004-03-12T14:32:14Z")
Presume if there is a G subshell in the Atomic structure, how many orbitals that subshell would have ? ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science/233894/2 "2004-03-12T15:40:02Z")
A little more descriptive of a thread title would have been helpful here. Also, this sounds a little like a homework problem, so I’ll give a sketch of how to go about finding the answer: [ul] [li]An electron orbital in a hydrogen atom has four “quantum numbers” that uniquely denote it; they’re usually called n, l, m, and s.[/li][li]The letters S, P, D, F, G, H, etc. correspond to the quantum number n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.[/li][li]For a given value of n, the quantum number l can take on any value from 0 to n-1.[/li][li]For a given value of l, the quantum number m can take on any value from -l to l.[/li][li]Finally, the quantum number s can be -1/2 or +1/2, regardless of the values of n, l, or m.[/li][/ul] If you write out all the values of l, m, and s that are possible for the value of n that you’re looking at, you should be able to find the number of possible orbital. (Alternately, you can just write out the possible value of l & m and then multiply by 2 to account for the possibilities for s.)