- #1
Amith2006
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When I was trying to learn the reason for the Orbital angular momentum quantum number taking only whole number values, I stumbled across the wiki site on the same, which says that,
Angular momentum in quantum mechanics
In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is quantized – that is, it cannot vary continuously, but only in "quantum leaps" between certain allowed values. The orbital angular momentum of a subatomic particle, that is due to its motion through space, is always a whole-number multiple of h(bar).
If I am not wrong, it is the Orbital angular momentum quantum number which takes whole-number values and not the Orbital angular momentum itself. The magnitude of the Orbital angular momentum is in-fact,
[tex]\sqrt{[l(l+1)]}[/tex]h(bar)
The link to this site is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_momentum
Oh God! Sometimes even simple things create confusion...
Angular momentum in quantum mechanics
In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is quantized – that is, it cannot vary continuously, but only in "quantum leaps" between certain allowed values. The orbital angular momentum of a subatomic particle, that is due to its motion through space, is always a whole-number multiple of h(bar).
If I am not wrong, it is the Orbital angular momentum quantum number which takes whole-number values and not the Orbital angular momentum itself. The magnitude of the Orbital angular momentum is in-fact,
[tex]\sqrt{[l(l+1)]}[/tex]h(bar)
The link to this site is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_momentum
Oh God! Sometimes even simple things create confusion...