Exception to the Madelung energy ordering rule Updated 2025-07-16
Magnetic quantum number Updated 2025-07-16
Fixed quantum angular momentum in a given direction.
Can range between .
The z component of the quantum angular momentum is simply:so e.g. again for gallium:
- s-orbitals: necessarily have 0 z angular momentum
- p-orbitals: have either 0, or z angular momentum
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.