Hund's Rule

Hund's Rule states that electrons will occupy separate orbitals in the same subshell before pairing up. The resulting number from the application of Hund's Rule is the maximum number of unpaired electrons that can be placed in a set of degenerate orbitals (orbitals with the same energy level). In the formula, numberOfElectrons is the total number of electrons to be distributed among the orbitals, and orbitals is the number of available orbitals in a subshell. The formula calculates the minimum number of electrons that will end up unpaired. It is useful in understanding the electronic configuration of atoms as well as their magnetic properties since atoms with unpaired electrons show magnetic behavior.