Science Facts: Orbital Dimensions

When a carbon atom forms a bond, it often creates a hybrid orbital such as sp, sp2, or sp3. Since each of carbon's three possible p orbitals is on a separate axis (px, py, and pz), an sp orbital is one-dimensional (having only one p), sp2 is two-dimensional (having two p directions to work with), and sp3 is three-dimensional with all three p directions. Fortunately, all this happens without us needing to understand how it works.