Final answer:
The element with electron configuration [Ar] 4s² 3d¹⁰ 4p³ is arsenic (As), belonging to period 4 and group 15 with atomic number 33. Similar configurations include silicon (Si), scandium (Sc), and noble gas argon (Ar) for manganese, with barium (Ba) having [Xe] 6s² as its electron configuration.
Step-by-step explanation:
The element represented by the electron configuration [Ar] 4s² 3d¹⁰ 4p³ is arsenic (As). This configuration indicates that after the argon core ([Ar]), the 4s subshell is fully occupied with two electrons (4s²), the 3d subshell is fully occupied with ten electrons (3d¹⁰), and the 4p subshell has three electrons (4p³). Arsenic is in period 4, group 15 of the periodic table and has an atomic number of 33.
Reviewing similar electron configurations: Element with configuration [Ne] 3s² 3p² is silicon (Si), element with [Ar] 3d¹ 4s² is scandium (Sc), and the noble gas for Mn (manganese) electron configuration is argon ([Ar]). For barium (Ba), the electron configuration is written as [Xe] 6s² since its preceding noble gas is xenon (Xe).
When identifying atoms from their electron configurations as in exercises 4.3.1 and 4.3.2, it is crucial to recognize the order of the increasingly energetic orbitals. For smaller atoms, this is straightforward, but for larger atoms involving d and f subshells, the order can be less intuitive due to the overlapping of energy levels between orbitals as seen with potassium (K) filling the 4s before the 3d subshell.