Question

What information does the electronic configuration of an atom provide?

Answer 1

Electronic configuration is the distribution of electrons of an atom or molecule in atoms or molecular orbitals. The electronic configuration of an atom describes the orbitals occupied by electrons on the atom. The basis of this prediction, which assumes that electrons are added to an atom, one at a time, starting with the lowest energy orbital, until all of the electrons have been places in approximate orbitals.

The electronic configuration is used to describe the orbitals of an atom in its ground state, but it can be used to represent an atom that has ionized into a cation or anion by compensating with the loss or gain of electrons in their subsequent orbitals. Many of the physical and chemical properties of elements can be correlated to their unique electronic configuration.