{"id":246204,"date":"2025-07-07T03:15:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T03:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=246204"},"modified":"2025-07-07T03:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T03:15:38","slug":"a-neutral-atom-has-the-following-electron-configuration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/07\/a-neutral-atom-has-the-following-electron-configuration\/","title":{"rendered":"A neutral atom has the following electron configuration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A neutral atom has the following electron configuration: [Ne] 3s\u00b9 What is the chemical symbol for the atom? How many electrons does the atom have? How many 3s electrons are in the atom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electron configuration [Ne] 3s\u00b9 corresponds to an atom that has its core electrons in the configuration of neon (Ne), followed by a single electron in the 3s orbital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Chemical Symbol<\/strong>: The symbol of this atom is Na<\/strong> (Sodium). The element sodium is located in Group 1 (alkali metals) of the periodic table, and it has one electron in the 3s orbital after the noble gas neon. Sodium has an atomic number of 11, indicating that it has 11 electrons in total.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Number of Electrons<\/strong>: The atom has 11 electrons<\/strong>. This is derived from the atomic number of sodium (Na), which is 11. The electron configuration can be broken down as follows:\n
      \n
    • The neon core [Ne] represents the first 10 electrons (2 in the 1s orbital, 2 in the 2s orbital, 6 in the 2p orbitals).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • The remaining electron is placed in the 3s orbital, which gives the 3s\u00b9 part of the configuration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Number of 3s Electrons<\/strong>: There is 1 electron<\/strong> in the 3s orbital. This is specified in the configuration as 3s\u00b9, meaning that there is one electron in the 3s subshell.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Explanation<\/strong>: The electron configuration provides insight into the arrangement of electrons in an atom\u2019s orbitals. For sodium, after filling the inner shells according to the Aufbau principle (lowest energy orbitals fill first), the electron configuration shows that sodium has a single electron in its outermost shell, which is the 3s orbital. This electron configuration is significant because sodium’s chemical properties are largely determined by the presence of this single valence electron. Sodium tends to lose this electron easily, making it highly reactive and a strong reducing agent. This tendency is characteristic of alkali metals, which all have a single electron in their outermost shell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A neutral atom has the following electron configuration: [Ne] 3s\u00b9 What is the chemical symbol for the atom? How many electrons does the atom have? How many 3s electrons are in the atom? The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The electron configuration [Ne] 3s\u00b9 corresponds to an atom that has its core electrons in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}