Every atom basically has an infinite number of shells. The thing is that almost all of those shells are empty (they don’t have electrons in them). Electrons generally go into the orbital with the “lowest energy.” The first orbital that fills up is called the 1S orbital. This one can hold 2 electrons.
This begs the inquiry “How many electrons does each shell of an atom hold?”
Shell 1 (1S) holds 2 electrons. After that, the next 2 hold 18 each, then the next 2 hold 32. So far, scientists haven t discovered any elements that use more orbitals than this.
While reading we ran into the inquiry “How many electrons are in the second shell of an atom?”.
The second shell can hold a maximum of eight electrons. When this is filled, electrons go into the third shell, which also holds a maximum of eight electrons. Then the fourth shell begins to fill. A lithium atom, for example, has three electrons.
One source claimed that s-orbitals can hold 2 electrons, the p-orbitals can hold 6 electrons. Thus, the second shell can have 8 electrons. The n=3 (third)shell has: The 3s orbital The 3p orbitals The 3d orbitals s-orbitals can hold 2 electrons, p-orbitals can hold 6, and d-orbitals can hold 10, for a total of 18 electrons. Therefore, the formula $2n^2$ holds!
How many electrons can each shell hold?
There are 4 subshells, s, p, d, and f. Each subshell can hold a different number of electrons. The n number determines how many of the subshells make up the shell. For example, the 1st shell is made up of 1 subshell, s. It can therefore contain only 2 electrons.
While I was reading we ran into the query “What is the maximum number of electrons in a shell?”.
Energy shell Maximum number of electrons First 2 Second 8 Third 8 .
You should be asking “How many electrons are in each shell of an electron configuration?”
This is what I found., and electron shells. Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons: The first shell can hold up to two electrons, the second shell can hold up to eight (2 + 6) electrons, the third shell can hold up to 18 (2 + 6 + 10) and so on. The general formula is that the nth shell can in principle hold up to 2 (n2) electrons.
How many electrons does a carbon atom have?
A carbon atom has six electrons. It has two in the first shell and four in the second shell. A calcium atom has 20 electrons. Two are in the first shell, eight in the second shell, eight in the third shell, and two in the fourth shell.