Chemistry - Which orbitals of the hydrogen atom are degenerate for n=3?
First of all isn't there only 1 electron in hydrogen?
yes
And how could the s orbital be degenerate? Doesn't degenerate mean there are multiple places pairs of orbitals can be?
"degenerate" means having the same energy. "Degenerate" refers to a set of orbitals. It doesn't make sense to say one orbital is degenerate.
Solving the non-relativistic Schrodinger equation, all the orbitals for a given "n" are degenerate. Energy only depends upon n.
More complete consideration including relativity, spin and quantum electrodynamics shows that they are not all degenerate however.