cold neutral atoms question

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2007-12-21 04:11am

Ok one of my coworkers is taking a science class and has a question on his homework. The question is to describe the orbital electron shell of a cold neutral atom. I know what the electron shells are but I'm not to sure about the cold neutral atom part. And when I google it I don't get much clear answers.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2007-12-21 04:19am

The "cold, neutral" criterion is probably intended to mean that the atom is not an ion and none of its electrons are in an excited state. Does it ask about an atom of any particular element or is this a general sort of question?

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2007-12-21 04:30am

Just a generalized question.

Kuroneko · Post by **Kuroneko** » 2007-12-21 06:05am

The question doesn't really make sense as stated--either it's missing a plural (e.g., describe of them) or a qualifier to specify which (e.g., the [outer/valence] orbital electron shell). But either way, you can find the descriptions of the orbitals and the valence shell fairly easily, as well as how to fill them when predicting electron configuration. For those purposes, "cold, neutral" just means none of the electrons are missing and they are in their expected places.

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-12-21 06:10am

Kuroneko wrote:The question doesn't really make sense as stated--either it's missing a plural (e.g., describe of them) or a qualifier to specify which (e.g., the [outer/valence] orbital electron shell).

However, it would make sense if they just recently looked at hydrogen.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2007-12-21 07:10am

Thanks for the info. I'll double check with him but then I don't really care as the person is an idiot and the only reson I put up with him is because my wife and his are friends.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-12-21 10:22am

If he's an idiot, he's probably describing the question incorrectly.