Question
What is the electron configuration difference between Magnesium (Mg) and Zinc (Zn)?
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The electron configurations of Magnesium (Mg) and Zinc (Zn) differ primarily in the number of electrons they have and thus the distribution of those electrons in their atomic orbitals.
- **Magnesium (Mg)** has an atomic number of 12, which means it has 12 electrons. Its electron configuration is:
\[
\text{Mg: } 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2
\]
- **Zinc (Zn)** has an atomic number of 30, meaning it has 30 electrons. Its electron configuration is:
\[
\text{Zn: } 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 3d^{10}
\]
The key differences in their electron configurations are:
1. **Number of Electrons**: Magnesium has a total of 12 electrons, while Zinc has 30.
2. **Electron Shells and Orbitals**: Magnesium ends with the 3s orbital being filled, while Zinc includes the filling of the 4s orbital, followed by the 3d orbitals which are fully filled with 10 electrons.
This results in Zinc having a more complex configuration due to the presence of d orbitals, whereas Magnesium's configuration is simpler, residing only within the s and p orbitals of the first three energy levels.
- **Magnesium (Mg)** has an atomic number of 12, which means it has 12 electrons. Its electron configuration is:
\[
\text{Mg: } 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2
\]
- **Zinc (Zn)** has an atomic number of 30, meaning it has 30 electrons. Its electron configuration is:
\[
\text{Zn: } 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 3d^{10}
\]
The key differences in their electron configurations are:
1. **Number of Electrons**: Magnesium has a total of 12 electrons, while Zinc has 30.
2. **Electron Shells and Orbitals**: Magnesium ends with the 3s orbital being filled, while Zinc includes the filling of the 4s orbital, followed by the 3d orbitals which are fully filled with 10 electrons.
This results in Zinc having a more complex configuration due to the presence of d orbitals, whereas Magnesium's configuration is simpler, residing only within the s and p orbitals of the first three energy levels.