Which orbital would the electron of a ground state hydrogen atom occupy?

1 Answer
Meave60
Jun 4, 2018

The electron would occupy the "1s" sublevel in the "1s" orbital.

Explanation:

Every hydrogen atom has the atomic number 1, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. If the atom is neutral, it will also have 1 electron.

In the ground state, the only place that electron can go is in the "1s" sublevel. There is only one orbital in the "1s" sublevel, which is an "s orbital". So its ground state electron configuration is "1s"^1".

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