The difference between the amount of energy we expect to get from benzene on hydro-genation (360 kJ mol⁻¹) and what is observed (208 kJ mol⁻¹) is about 150 kJ mol⁻¹. This rep-resents a crude measure of just how extra stable benzene really is relative to what it would be like with three localized double bonds. In order to understand the origin of this stabilization, we must look at the molecular orbitals. We can think of the π molecular orbitals of benzene as resulting from the combination of the six p orbitals in a ring and, as with buta-diene, each successively higher energy orbital contains one more node. This is what we get for benzene:

The molecular orbital lowest in energy, ψ1, has no nodes, with all the orbitals combining in phase. The next lowest molecular orbital will have one nodal plane, which can be arranged in two ways depending on whether or not the nodal plane passes through a bond or an atom. It turns out that these two different molecular orbitals both have exactly the same energy, that is, they are degenerate, and we call them both ψ2. There are likewise two ways of arranging two nodal planes and again there are two degenerate molecular orbitals ψ3. The final molecular orbital ψ4 will have three nodal planes, which must mean all the p orbitals combining out of phase. Six electrons slot neatly into the three lowest energy bonding orbitals.