Find the mistake: orbital diagram breaking Hund’s rule (nitrogen)

An example figure from the Orbital Diagram generator.

Orbital diagram of nitrogen drawn wrong: the 2p sublevel has a pair of arrows in one box, one arrow in the next and an empty third box
A deliberately wrong orbital diagram of nitrogen for a “find the mistake” question. Its 2p sublevel has a pair in the first orbital, one electron in the second and none in the third, which breaks Hund’s rule: in the ground state, 1s² 2s² 2p³, each 2p orbital holds one electron.

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Answer key

  • N: 1s² 2s² 2p³
  • Excited state
  • Hund’s rule: 2p has a pair while one of its orbitals is empty

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