Question

An atom in the ground state has two electrons in its first shell and six electrons in its second shell. What is the total number of protons in the nucleus of this atom?(1) 5 (2) 2 (3) 7 (4) 8

Answer 1

The answer is (4) 8. The total electrons are two plus six equals eight. And at ground state, the atom does not have charge. So the proton number is 8. One proton has one positive charge.

Answer 2

The correct answer is 4 = eight

Step-by-step explanation:

Hello! Let's solve this!

An atom in its fundamental state has the same number of protons as electrons. In this case, it has two + six electrons. That is eight electrons. So it also has eight protons. This is because the charges are equalized.

The correct answer is 4 = eight