Question

What is the electron configuration of mercury?

Answer 1

Examine your periodic table and find mercury.

You should then find its atomic number is `80`. It has a `"Xe"` core, so in shorthand notation, you can include `["Xe"]` instead of `1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^10 4s^2 4p^6 4d^10 5s^2 5p^6`, for `54` electrons.

For the 6th row of the periodic table, we introduce the `4f` orbitals, and proceed to atoms having occupied `5d` orbitals. We, as usual, have the `ns` orbitals, and `n = ?` for the 6th period?

Mercury has a regular electron configuration. It becomes:

`color(blue)(["Xe"] 4f^14 5d^10 6s^2)`