Shells can be further divied into orbitals. Orbitals are the shapes produced when you trace the shape that the electrons are most likely to be located.

Orbitals are given the following labels as being either s, p, d or f.

The simplest orbital is the s orital which is a spherical orbital. The “s” stands for “sharp”, nor spherical.

The p orbital standing for “principle” orbital, has three different types.

Shell 2 contains one s oribital which contains two electrons, and three p oribitals which each contain two electrons. They are shaped like two baloons tied together in the middle, meaning they have two regions where electons may be found opposite sides of the nucleas. They two sides are called “lobes”, and are labelled positive or negative.

They want you define the p robital is by the ml which is the direction of the orbital, in additio not it’s type.

If you thiknk of the electron as being like a wave with positive, and negative ends.

Their orientation falls along three axises, that being the x, y and z axis. Even though they may be the same distance from the nuclus, they point in different directions. If you rotated them 90 degrees in all three axises they would all be identical.

There are d oribtals, which stands for diffuse orbitals. The orbital number is 3.