Question

What is the electron configuration of the neon atom?

Answer 1

[2,8] or `1s^2 2s^2 2p^6`

Neon has atomic number 10, so a neon atom has 10 protons in its nucleus and therefore 10 electrons. The n=1 shell can only hold 2 electrons, so the remaining 8 electrons fill the n=2 shell.

The more detailed version of the electronic configuration reflects the sub-shells in the n=1 and n=2 shells, where the n=1 shell just has a single s-sub shell containing a single s-orbital which can hold up to 2 electrons. The n=2 shell consists of an s-sub shell with a single s-orbital and a p-sub shell with three p-orbitals, so a total capacity of 8 electrons.