What is the orbital diagram for a ground state carbon atom?

1 Answer
Dwight
Dec 14, 2016

The ground state is 1s22s22p2. In the explanation below, I show a common means of diagramming this.

Explanation:

Using arrows to show the spin orientation of each electron, the orbital diagram is often shown this way:

![intro.chem.okstate.edu)

The single electrons in the two p-orbitals is in accordance with Hund's Rule.

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