Why do atoms of nonmetals form anions? Support your answer with an example.

Nonmetals form negatively charged ions, or anions. They do this because they need to gain one to three electrons in order to achieve an octet of valence electrons, making them isoelectronic with the noble gas at the end of the period to which they belong.

There is one s orbital, and there are three p orbitals, five d orbitals, and seven f orbitals. thus, the answer is b. do not confuse the number of orbitals in a subshell with the number of electrons the subshell can hold. each orbital can hold two electrons, so the capacity of an nf subshell is 14 electrons.