I'm currently in a college-leveled Chemistry course. We're talking about electron configuration and I just do not understand how to do it. I can get to 1s²2s² and after that, I'm lost.

Help?

Hydrogen = 1s¹
Helium = 2s¹
Lithium = 2s¹1s²
Beryllium = 2s¹2s²
Boron = 2s¹2s²1p²
Argon = 2s¹2s²6p²
Sodium = 2s¹2s²6p²1s³

The electron configurations generally follow the periodic table (with some minor inconsistencies).

oh, so that's how you Americans do it. We mark it as KⁿLⁿMⁿNⁿ
Anyways, there are four things to keep in mind:
a) no electron can be in more than one whatever-you-call-them (the s1, s2, etc.), so the sum of all the 'n's must be equal to the number of electrons the atom has (in most cases, Z, or 1 for H, 2 for He, etc.)
b)the final whatever-you-call-them has all the valance electrons, so the number of electrons in it = the number of valance electrons (topology, yes, but it's easy to forget this)
c) the first "s1", or K, as I would call it, has 2 spots where electrons can go, the next 8, and I can't remember the rest, though if you're just starting to learn about this, you probably only need this. The second-to-last s always has the number of electrons "left over" from the previous 's's, minus the number of valance electrons. (1 for group 1, 2 for group 2, 3 for 13, 4-14 5-15 6-16 7-17, and I haven't yet learned about the rest: I'm only in 8th grade)
d) you can't add any electrons to the next 's' if all the previous ones aren't filled (the exception is the last 's', which must hold all the valance electrons)

If anything is unclear, please tell me what, and I'll try to rephrase it.

Erm. So, how do I know what one's will be?
I'm so sory. >__< My teacher has tried and tried to explain this to me, but I just don't get it.

I'll try to make a metaphor using platform flash games:
you have a few boxes
if you push them over a hole, they fall in
now, imagine you have 4 such holes. The first has a depth of two, so if you keep pushing all the blocks forward, two of them will fall in and the rest will move on. 8 will fall in the next hole, and then the metaphor is useless for the last two.

P.S.-you might not have read my previous post, I'm pretty sure we posted almost simultaneously.
Make sure to scroll up.

Yeah, they must have gone through at the same time.

Thank you so much! :)

You're welcome
BTW, are you saying that in the US, you don't cover electron configuration before college?
I mean, I know they don't teach as much in mandatory schools there, but the electron configuration?
When do you learn about the structure of an atom, then?

You're welcome
BTW, are you saying that in the US, you don't cover electron configuration before college?

It's covered in very basic terms. In the state I live in, Chemistry isn't even a required course to graduate. While it is learned in basic Chem, it's really glossed over as something you need to know how to read, not know how to write.

anywhere other than here I would have made a giant facepalm in the direction of the US, but I won't.

My state is one of the worst, to be honest. Tax cut after tax cut after tax cut has left us far behind most other states.

and your state is...?

Florida. Need I say more?

If by "need I say more" you are implying that the poor state of education in Florida should be obvious to everyone in the world, then I disagree. I mean, I know of the US, but I have never looked into the particular states (I experienced the Californian system and it was bad enough)

Sorry.

The state of Florida is known for being generally screwed up, be in politically, educationally, or just the stupid stuff people do, to the point where FARK has a tag just for Florida.

One of the things that happened was that I got percussion lessons from a college graduate, and it turned out I could (having had 1 year of Polish percussion education and a bit of practice) play better than he could.

I'm sorry, play what?

just, generally. It took him a good 10-15 minutes just to read my program.

Oh! Gotcha. Sorry. I'm so stupid. >__<

My friend says college was the biggest waste of his money--he still can't get hired.

If you're still curious, this should sum up the Florida thing pretty well.

That said, my last 3 years of high school were in Florida, and my education there was pretty good. There were some mindbogglingly stupid decrees handed down by the principal, though. My favorite was the half-hour of FCAT prep in each class each week--even if everyone in the class had passed it the first attempt in 10th grade, and this was a 12th grade AP/IB class. For those of you keeping score at home, that's 10% of classroom time, across all subjects, squandered each week. And then he wondered why the teachers were complaining about not being able to cover all their material before the AP and IB exams.

Firstly you have to learn this
Hydrogen = 1s1
Helium = 2s1
Lithium = 2s11s2
Beryllium = 2s12s2
Boron = 2s12s21p2
Argon = 2s12s26p2
Sodium = 2s12s26p21s3 and
after completing it you should try to solve the chemistry worksheets available on internet just like maths worksheets.
organic chemistry help