What is the orbital diagram for calcium?

The orbital diagram for calcium illustrates how electrons are arranged within the energy levels and sublevels of the calcium atom. Calcium has an atomic number of 20, which means it possesses 20 electrons.

In its ground state, the electron configuration for calcium can be written as:

1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s²

This configuration indicates that the calcium atom has:

• 2 electrons in the 1s sublevel
• 2 electrons in the 2s sublevel
• 6 electrons in the 2p sublevel
• 2 electrons in the 3s sublevel
• 6 electrons in the 3p sublevel
• 2 electrons in the 4s sublevel

To visualize this, the orbital diagram can be depicted as follows:

 1s: ↑↓ 
 2s: ↑↓ 
 2p: ↑↓ ↑↓ ↑↓
 3s: ↑↓ 
 3p: ↑↓ ↑↓ ↑↓
 4s: ↑↓ 

Each line represents an orbital, and the arrows indicate the electrons. The directions of the arrows in the orbitals represent the spins of the electrons. In total, there are 20 electrons filling the orbitals according to the Aufbau principle, Hund’s rule, and the Pauli exclusion principle, leading to a stable configuration for calcium.