The 4s (ml=0) atomic orbital
Things to notice
- Three radial nodes, one of them probably too weak to see.
- Still sharply peaked at the nucleus, like the
1s,
2s, and
3s functions,
but much more spread out. Notice how the maximum value
of the probability density has dropped steadily as n increases,
(it falls from 0.56 for 1s to 0.20 for 2s to 0.11 for 3s to 0.07 for 4s).
