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Question:
An AP Physics student from The American School in Japan needs data on the orbitals of Mercury data needed for a physics experiment - please help


Replies:
What does he/she need to know about the orbitals? Energies? What they look like? Which ones are occupied? According to a table I have, the last question would be answered that mercury (Hg) has the electronic configuration [Xe]4f14-5d10-6s2 where the Xe represents the closed shell configuration of Xenon. In order to discuss spectroscopy you would have to know more about the multi-electron wavefunction, overall spin, and various possible excited states, which gets very complicated. There are standard reference books, however, and if I knew better what you were looking for I might be able to recommend one.

Arthur Smith

Could the questioner perhaps be asking about the ORBITS of the PLANET Mercury? As opposed to: the ORBITALS of atoms of the ELEMENT mercury (Hg). Any astronomers out there?

Topper


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