Transition Metals

The transition metals are more complicated than lighter elements.

Why?

Because they’re the first whose electron wavefunctions are described by quadratic functions of and — not just linear or constant. These are called ‘d orbitals’, and they look sort of like this:

More precisely: the wavefunctions of electrons in atoms depend on the distance from the nucleus and also the angles The angular dependence is described by ‘spherical harmonics’, certain functions on the sphere. These ar...