Final answer:
The statement is false; an atom with an electron configuration that ends in a pā¶ orbital has 8 valence electrons, representing a full valence shell consistent with the noble gases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that an atom's electron configuration ends in a p6 orbital it has 8 valence electrons is false. If an atom's electron configuration ends in a p6 orbital, this would mean that p-orbitals of that particular valence shell are fully filled. As each p-orbital can hold a maximum of 6 electrons, and s-orbitals can hold 2, a full s and p subshell in a given shell would account for 8 electrons in total.
These 8 electrons would then represent the atom's valence electrons, which is consistent with the electron configurations of the noble gases found in the last column of the p-block in the periodic table. For example, the electron configuration of the oxygen atom is 1s22s22p4, and oxygen has six valence electrons, as seen in water (H2O) where each hydrogen atom contributes one valence electron, leading to a total of eight for the molecule. In the case where an expanded octet occurs, such as in phosphorus pentachloride (PCl5), phosphorus shares five pairs of electrons, resulting in ten electrons in the valence shell, but this is an exception to the octet rule.