can subshell be synonymous with orbital?

[Kneecoal]

the ada outline mentions knowing orbital types. kaplan talks about the subshells s,p,d,f, which i understand - but then the textbook talks about the s,p,d,f orbitals. what's the difference? does it mean we should know their shapes?

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[Hot Homer]

I believe the subshell is designated by a number 1,2,3,4 etc. the orbital is s,p,d,f. Knowing the orbital types is knowing their shapes and how many electrons the can hold.

 

[klutzy1987]

An orbital holds 2 electrons. There are different types of orbitals, s,p,d,f,(g). A subshell is represented by your N value, i.e. Na has its outermost electron in the 3rd subshell in a s orbital. There is a very big difference.

 

[Kneecoal]

ok... i think... but i thought the way it worked was:

n = 1; l = 0 (s subshell)
n = 2; l = 0 (s subshell) or 1 (p subshell)

and so on, and then each subshell has a certain number of orbitals, i.e., s has 1 orbital, p has 3, d has 5, etc. so are they just saying that the one orbital in s is an "s" orbital, the 3 orbitals in p are "p" orbitals?

 

[cmills66]

I'm pretty sure this is right. n is the principle energy level, and within each n, you will have subshells (s,p,d,f,etc.) and each subshell will have a certain number of orbitals.
just think in terms of smallest to largest: orbital<subshell<n