Joey was taking a chemistry test. one question asked him to write the electron configuration for polonium (po). he wrote it out like this: 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d104p65s24d105p6 6s25d106p4. joey’s teacher marked it wrong. why?

Polonium has an atomic number of 84 in the periodic table and is solid at 20 degrees Celsius. It is an alpha emitter which is used to extract a thin film for stainless steel. They are used for antistatic devices and a good source of heat for space machines. The correct electron configuration of a polonium atom is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 5s2 5p6 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p4. What is lacking in his configuration is the presence of the f sub shell. He should have added 4f14 before 5d10 because if he did not add it, it would give another element.

a:

by the combination of an unlimited number of elements