The discussion revolves around the number of possible elements if only those with a principal quantum number n less than or equal to 4 are considered. Participants explore the implications of this restriction on electron configurations and the resulting count of elements.
Participants express differing views on the correct interpretation of the question and the resulting number of elements, indicating that multiple competing perspectives remain unresolved.
The discussion highlights the complexity of electron configurations and the influence of orbital energy ordering, which may not align with straightforward counting methods based on principal quantum numbers alone.
If you take only elements which have at most ##n=4## electrons, you indeed get a different number, but this is not what the question is about. What you get from the periodic table depends on the fact that the energy ordering of orbitals doesn't depend only on n, which makes it such that 5s electrons are lower in energy than 4d electrons. But the question says that n is at most 4, so when the 4p orbitals are filled, you will fill the 4d orbitals (and not the 5s as is the case for real atoms). You end up with different electronic configurations.erisedk said:But looking from the periodic table, isn't my answer right?