Write the symbol, give the ground-state electron configuration, and draw an orbital-filling diagram for each of the following atoms. Use the abbreviation of the preceding noble gas to represent the inner-shell electrons. (a) The heaviest alkaline earth metal

Video transcript

Hello everyone today. We are being given the following problem, identify the symbol, provide the condensed electron configuration and draw the orbital diagram for the Alkali metal in period four. So as stated in the question stem we are working with an alkali metal and alkali metals are in group one of the periodic table and therefore have an S orbital or involve S orbital's. It was also noted that it was in the 4th period or period four. And so if we have an alkali metal, that's going to be group one and period four, that element that we are working with is going to be potassium, which has a symbol of K. And its noble gas configuration is four because it's in the fourth period S as in the S orbital and one because it's the first element in that orbital next. Since the question asks for the condensed electron configuration, we must note the noble gas that precedes it, that potassium, that is so the noble gas that precedes potassium is and if we go on the periodic table, that's going to be argon or a R for short. So we're going to hang onto that for a little while and in constructing our condensed electron configuration, we're going to put the preceding noble gas in brackets. So a ar for argon and then we're going to follow that up with our four S one. And so this is going to be our condensed formula here. This immediately gets rid of anti choice is A B. C. And leaves us with answer choice D. But let's construct the orbital diagram. So our orbital diagram, as showcased in the answer choice, is going to have that noble gas are gone, followed by our four S orbital. And because there's only one electron being filled, we draw one arrow, one half arrow in the upward direction. And so this is going to be our orbital diagram, and then we have our condensed formula above. And with that, we have answered the question overall. I hope that this helped until next time.