Question

Any $p$ orbital can accommodate up to:
A: four electrons.
B: two electrons with parallel spin.
C: six electrons.
D: two electrons with opposite spin.

Answer 1

Orbital is defined by magnetic quantum number $\left( {{m_l}} \right)$ which ranges from $- l$ to $+ l$ . $l$ Is orbital angular momentum quantum number and it depends on principal quantum number. Principal quantum number is the number of shells of electrons we are talking about.

Complete answer: Magnetic quantum number distinguishes the orbital availability within a subshell. It is denoted by ${m_l}$ . It’s value ranges from $- l$ to $+ l$ . $l$ is the orbital angular quantum number that determines the shape of an orbital and it’s angular distribution. The number of angular nodes is equal to the value of this quantum number can be calculated as $l = n - 1$.
$n$ is the principal quantum number which designates the principal electron shell. The longer the number $n$ farther the electron is from the nucleus.
As we know each orbital can accommodate a maximum of $2$ electrons that too with opposite spin, the same applies to $p$ orbital as well.
So, the answer to this question is option D that is two electrons with opposite spin.

Additional information: An electron shell is the set of allowed states that share the same principal quantum number. The electronic configuration of an atom is very important. Many properties of elements can easily find out with the help of electronic configuration. The main exception to the electronic configuration is chromium. Atomic number of chromium is $24$ it’s configuration should be $1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^6}3{s^2}3{p^6}3{d^6}4{s^0}$ but it’s configuration is $1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^6}3{s^2}3{p^6}3{d^5}4{s^1}$ because half-filled $d$ subshell is more stable than partially filled $d$ subshell. Due to which one electron from $d$ subshells jumps to $4s$.
There are four subshells that are $s,p,d,f$ .
$s$ subshell has zero orbitals that are it can accommodate a maximum of two-electron, $p$ subshell has three orbitals that is it can accommodate a maximum of $6$ electron, $d$ subshell has five orbitals that is it can accommodate a maximum of $10$ electron, $f$ subshell has seven orbitals that is it can accommodate a maximum of $14$ electron.

Note:
Always remember the maximum number of electrons in an orbital can be 2 that too with opposite spin and the maximum number of electrons in a subshell depends on the number of orbitals it possesses. There are a total of four quantum numbers and no two electrons can have all the four quantum numbers the same. These four quantum numbers are principal quantum number, angular quantum number, magnetic quantum number, and spin quantum number.