Instructor: Mark Pearcy. Plato's allegory of the cave is one of the best-known, most insightful attempts to explain the nature of reality. The cave represents the state of most human beings, and the tale of a dramatic exit from the cave is the source of true understanding.
We also have to know how many electrons can fit into each state. There is only one s-orbital per shell, and it can hold a total of 2 electrons. There are three total p-orbitals (ml = -1,0,1) that can hold a total of 6 electrons (because each ml can have an ms of +1/2 or -1/2. There are five d-orbitals (ml = -2,-1,0,1,2) that can hold a total of 10 electrons. Here's an example to help put this in context. We need to write the electron configuration for an oxygen atom. First, go to the periodic table and find how many electrons oxygen has.
Because space has 3 dimensions and electrons have spin Â½. The most tightly bound electron in an atom has zero orbital angular momentum. But because of the spin, there are two ways to put an electron into that orbit: spin up and spin down. That means you can put 2 electrons into the most tightly bound orbit.