Magnetic quantum number Updated +Created
Fixed quantum angular momentum in a given direction.
Can range between .
E.g. consider gallium which is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p1:
The z component of the quantum angular momentum is simply:
so e.g. again for gallium:
Note that this direction is arbitrary, since for a fixed azimuthal quantum number (and therefore fixed total angular momentum), we can only know one direction for sure. is normally used by convention.