Question

Differentiate between orbit and orbital.

Answer 1

Hint: In order to solve this question one must know about the molecular orbital theory which states that each atom tends to combine together and form molecular orbitals. As a result of this arrangement, electrons are found in various atomic orbitals and are usually associated with different nuclei. Orbit is a defined path while the orbital deals more with the probability of finding electrons.

Complete step by step solution:
Let us discuss the difference between orbit and orbital.

Orbit	Orbital
An orbit is a fixed path on which electrons revolve around the nucleus.	An orbital is the probable area of finding the maximum density of electrons in an atom.
An orbit is a planar representation, i.e., a two dimensional representation.	An orbital is a three dimensional representation.
An orbit is non-directional in nature which means the shape of an atom cannot be described by an orbit.	While an orbital can describe the shape of an atom thus is directional in nature.
An orbit does not follow the theory of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Orbits follow the principles of Bohr-Sommerfeld’s theory.	An orbital follows the theory of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.
An orbit can accommodate ${ 2n }^{ 2 }$ electrons where n represents the number of the orbit or the shell. For example, K shell represents the 1st orbit, L shell represents the 2nd one.	An orbital can accommodate the maximum of two electrons only in its sub-levels. The s orbital has only one sub-level, so it can contain only 2 electrons. But the p orbital has 3 sub-levels and thus it can contain upto 6 electrons.

Thus, as you can see the above given table represents the difference between the orbit and the orbital.

Note: You should always remember that the concept of orbit was given by Bohr-Sommerfeld and it was considered that the energy of each orbital is quantised i.e, the electrons do not lose energy while revolving around the nucleus. But the major drawback of this theory is that it doesn't obey Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. According to Heisenberg, the position and momentum of a subatomic particle cannot be determined. That is why, the orbital overcomes this particular drawback as it deals with probabilities and not exact positions.