Question

What is the orbital diagram for a ground state carbon atom?

Answer 1

The ground state is `1s^2 2s^2 2p^2`. In the explanation below, I show a common means of diagramming this.

Explanation:

Using arrows to show the spin orientation of each electron, the orbital diagram is often shown this way:

The single electrons in the two p-orbitals is in accordance with Hund's Rule.