This JAVA applet illustrates the two-dimensional shapes of the isodensity surfaces associated with atomic, y_{n, l, m} , and hybrid orbitals. A hybird orbital is the linear combination of two or more atomic orbitals on the same atom, e.g. y⁽¹⁾_sp =   0.7071(2s + 2p_z) and y⁽²⁾_sp =   0.7071(2s - 2p_z) . The lobes of the isodensity surfaces of the p and d atomic orbitals and the hybrid orbitals are displayed in different colors to denote a change in the algebraic sign of the orbital. When the isodensity surfaces for several hybrid orbitals are drawn, the smaller lobes are omitted for clarity.

Nutt 99