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Ch.8 - Periodic Properties of the Elements

Chapter 8, Problem 41

Write the full electron configuration for each element. a. Si b. O c. K d. Ne

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Hello everyone today. We are being given four different elements and asked to provide the complete electronic configuration. When dealing with electron configuration, we're dealing with four different types of orbital's. We have the s orbital, the p orbital, the d orbital and lastly the f orbital. And each of these orbital's can hold a number of electrons for the s orbital it can hold a maximum of two electrons for the p orbital. It can hold a maximum of six electrons For the D orbital, a maximum of 10 electrons. And for the f orbital a maximum of 14 electrons moving on to our first element, we have our B or rubidium. The first thing we want to note is the atomic number and the atomic number of rubidium is 37. And in a neutral atom and or a neutral element the atomic number is equal to the number of protons as well as the number of electrons. Now we can start counting for the electron configuration. Starting from the first row, we have one s. 2. We then move on to the second row. We have two S 2. Notice how each s orbital has two electrons. We then have two p 6. We then moved down to the 3rd row where we have three S 2. Well then we have three p 6. We then must move Through the 4th row, four s 2. And now we encounter the D orbital here. The D orbital starts with three and it can hold a maximum of 10 electrons. Hence the three D 10, Moving more to the right, we have four p 6. And lastly we have five s. 1 Due to rubidium being any 5th row and having one valence electron. Next we move on to our second element which is sulfur and sulfur is atomic number is 16. Which is also equal to the number of protons and the number of electrons starting from the first row, we have one S 22, S two, two, P six, third row, three S two and finally three P four. The four represents that sulfur is the fourth element in the p orbital. Moving right along, we have Argon and Argon has an atomic number of 18, which is also equal to the number of protons and the number of electrons As we've done before. We start with our one S 2. In the first column our second column has two S two and a two P six. We then have a three S 2 and finally a three p 6. Last but not least, we have arsenic or a S. And its atomic number is 33 which also equals the number of protons and a number of electrons. As we've done before, we start with one is two. We go to two S 2, two, P. Six, three, S two, three P six For S two in the 4th row we hit the three D 10 orbital's and we finally end with four P three and these are our complete electron configurations for the following elements. I hope this helped. and until next time.