Part 1. Altered Reality: Suppose the electron were not a “fermion” and instead w
ID: 894466 • Letter: P
Question
Part 1. Altered Reality: Suppose the electron were not a “fermion” and instead was completely different particle that we will call the “tri-on”. This tri-on has 3 spin states instead of two – we will call these spin up, spin down, and no-spin. Now imagine in this new world all the other physical principles still seem to hold – that is electronic energy levels and orbitals are still quantized, the angular momentum and magnetic quantum number have the same rules, and the Pauli principle is still valid. Also assume there are still atoms and molecules.
-What would the electron configuration of copper be? Use the shorthand notation corresponding to this altered universe. Is copper a transition metal in this periodic table?
Explanation / Answer
The atomic number of copper is 29 and because of 3 spin states , the electron configuration of Cu is as follows.
Cu - 29 - 1s3 2s3 2p9 3s3 3p9 4s2
Hence, copper in new world is a s-bloc element not belongs to d-bloc/transition element.