Question

In an orbital, the signs of lobes indicate the:

• A. sign of the wave function
• B. sign of the probability distribution
• C. presence or absence or electron
• D. sign of charge

Answer 1

The correct option is A sign of the wave function

$\Psi$ is wave function of electron. The wave function may be regarded as the amplitude function expressed in terms of coordinates $x,y$ and $z$. This wave function may have positive or negative values depending upon the values of coordinates. When Schrodinger equation is solved, it is observed that for some region the values of $\Psi$ is negative and for other regions the value of $\Psi$ is positive.