Question

How many p orbitals are there in a neon atom?

Answer 1

Hint The electronic configuration can help us solve the given illustration. The electronic configuration will define the presence of s, p, d and f orbital in total. Out of them we need to identify the number of actual orbitals.

Complete step by step solution:
Let us solve this illustration using basics of the electronic configuration by Aufbau’s principle and Hund’s rule;
Neon- Neon is the chemical element with atomic number 10 and symbol Ne. it is a noble gas element with its octet complete i.e. it is stable in its elemental form.
It is located in period 2 and group 18 of the modern periodic table. It will remain neutral as it is stable in its natural form i.e. it will have 10 electrons and 10 protons. The electronic configuration will be;
$Neon:1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}$ thus,
There will be 2 electrons in 1s-orbital
There will be 2 electrons in 2s-orbital
There will be 6 electrons in 2p-orbital
Now, we know that the p-orbital will have 3 subshells as only 2 electrons can accommodate an orbital. Thus, the six electrons present in the 2p-orbital will be divided into three p-subshells.

Therefore, we can say that neon will have three p-orbitals.

Note: Similarly, if the atom has its electronic configuration till f-orbital then, there will be five f-orbitals in total for the respective atom.
Do note that the axes will be different for all the subshells. The 2p-orbital will be designated as $2{{p}_{z}}^{2}2{{p}_{y}}^{2}2{{p}_{z}}^{2}$ .