WGU C833 2.2 Electron Configurations, Questions and answers, VERIFIED

Aufbau principle - -procedure in which the electron configuration of the elements is determined by "building" them in order of atomic numbers, adding one proton to the nucleus and one electron to the proper subshell at a time core electron - -electron in an atom that occupies the orbitals of the inner shells electron configuration - -electronic structure of an atom in its ground state given as a listing of the orbitals occupied by the electrons Hund's rule - -Every orbital in a subshell is singly occupied with one electron before any one orbital is doubly occupied, and all electrons in singly occupied orbitals have the same spin. orbital diagram - -pictorial representation of the electron configuration showing each orbital as a box and each electron as an arrow valence electrons - -electrons in the outermost or valence shell (highest value of n) of a ground-state atom that determine how an element reacts valence shell - -outermost shell of electrons in a ground-state atom; for main group elements, the orbitals with the highest n level (s and p subshells) are in the valence shell, while for transition metals, the highest-energy s and d subshells make up the valence shell; for inner transition elements, the highest s, d, and f subshells are included