Degenerate orbitals

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See also: Degenerate energy level

Degenerate orbitals for electrons in an atomic subshell are orbitals at identical energy levels. These are important in physical chemistry because they affect the ways electrons fill atoms (see Hund's rule). For example, all the 3p orbitals have same energy level, and so do all the 5d orbitals.Each orbital is defined as if it lies along a set of x, y, z axes. The 2p orbitals are thus 2px, 2py and 2pz. The 3p orbitals would be the same shape but larger and at higher energy.

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