How Many Orbitals in the 3rd Shell?

[Miike012]

Question: There are ___ orbitals in the third shell.

25
4
9
1

I picked 4... but the answer is 9... How did they come up with this?

 

[Slats18]

I believe by adding together the orbitals of the subshells.

The s subshell has 1 orbital, the d has 3, and p has 5, hence 9 =)

 

[Miike012]

Isnt that the fourth shell that you are counting from?

I was starting at 3s... with one orbital.. then 3p with 3 orbitals...

 

[Slats18]

Then after that is 4s, but then it returns to 3d, which is 5 orbitals. So overall, the 3rd shell has 9 orbitals.

 

[Miike012]

Gotcha... thank you.