Determine the following for the fouth shellof an atom
(a) The number of subshells
(b) The designation for each subshell
(c ) The number of orbitals in each subshell
(d) The maximum number of electrons that can be contained in each subshell
(e ) The maximum number of electrons that can be contained in the shell.

Explanation

(a) The number of subshells in the same as the number used to designated the shell i.e., equal to the value of 'n' . Therefore the `4^(th)` shell contains four subshells Subshells increase in energy according to the order s,p,d,f.
(b) The subshells in the fourth shell are designatedas 4s, 4p,4d and 4f.
(c ) The number of orbitals in s,p,d and f subshells is 1,3,5 and 7 respectively because s-subshell contains a single orbital `:`p - subshell contains three orbitals , d-subshell contains five orbitals and f-subshell contains seven orbitals.
(d) Each orbital can contain a maximum of two electrons, independent of the type of orbital. Thereforethe 4s-subshell( one orbital) can hold a maximum oftwo electrons, the 4p- subshell ( five orbitals) a maximum of 10 electron and the 4f-subshell ( seven orbitals) a maximum of 14 electrons.
( e ) The maximum number of electrons that can be contained in the shell is simply the sum of the maximum number of electrons for each subshell` 2+6+ 10+14 = 32` electrons.