The are the electrons that determine the most typical patterns for an element.
These electrons are found in the s and p orbitals of the highest energy level (row of the periodic table) for the element.
Using the for each element we can determine the .
Na – Sodium ##1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^1## Sodium has 1 valence electron from the 3s orbital
P – Phosphorus ##1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^3## Phosphorus has 5 valence electrons 2 from the 3s and 3 from the 3p
Fe – Iron ##1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 3d^6## Iron has 2 valence electrons from the 4s
Br – Bromine ##1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 3d^10 4p^5## Bromine has 7 valence electrons 2 from the 4s and 5 from the 4p you can count the electrons in the outermost shell
I hope this was helpful. SMARTERTEACHER



