p orbitals

why, at n > 1 energy levels do the p, d, etc. orbitals become 2 or more seperate "loops?" and how does an electron it jump from one to the other? it wasnt fully explained to me, and i dont really understand.

 

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The more complicated geometric structure is due to the fact that these orbitals have non zero angular momentum. The s orbitals have L = 0, they are spherically symmetric. The p orbitals have L = 1 and the d orbitals have L = 2. When you solve the Schrodinger equation with non zero angular momentum, you obtain radial solutions multiplied by spherical harmonics. For example, the p_z orbital has an angular dependence of cos( θ ), so if the square of the wavefunction is proportional to the probability then you can see that the probability is large when θ is near 0 or pi and vanishes when θ is equal to pi/2. You should try to convince yourself that this indeed the shape of the p_z orbital. Also, the electron doesn't jump from loop to loop, the loops are all part of a given orbital.

Hope this helps.

 

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