Talk:P-block

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Not sure why there were citation needed tags for things that are common knowledge. I deleted them, 5/20/2012. I was hoping someone could explain why the P-block is referred to as the P-block. What does the "P" stand for? And, for that matter, how about the "S" in S-block, the "D" in D-block, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.36.62.225 (talk) 20:17, 27 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"s", "p", "d", and "f" stand for "sharp", "principal", "diffuse", and "fundamental", respectively. This is old terminology from spectroscopy: the full names are never used nowadays, just the initial letters. Double sharp (talk) 12:31, 12 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]