Question

An element has an electron configuration of 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²3d¹⁰4p⁶5s²4d¹⁰. How many electrons does an atom of this element have?

Answer 1

An atom with the electron configuration 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 3d¹⁰ 4p⁶ 5s² 4d¹⁰ has a total of 48 electrons.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many electrons an atom of an element has based on its electron configuration, we need to add up the numbers that follow the letters (s, p, d, f) representing the orbitals. The given electron configuration is:

1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 3d¹⁰ 4p⁶ 5s² 4d¹⁰

Summing these numbers results in a total of:

• 2 (from 1s²) + 2 (from 2s²) + 6 (from 2p⁶) + 2 (from 3s²) + 6 (from 3p⁶) + 2 (from 4s²) + 10 (from 3d¹⁰) + 6 (from 4p⁶) + 2 (from 5s²) + 10 (from 4d¹⁰) = 48 electrons.

Therefore, an atom with this electron configuration has 48 electrons.

The electron configuration provided is 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²3d¹⁰4p⁶5s²4d¹⁰. To determine the number of electrons in an atom, we sum up the superscripts in the electron configuration. In this case, the sum is:

2 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 2 + 10 = 30

Therefore, an atom of this element has 30 electrons.