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Atomic}Orbital Config

First, Check that all choices have superscripts that add to 15. That's apparently so, so one can't easily eliminate choices based on that.

Since the problem has electrons in ground-state, choice (D) and (A) cannot be it--no electrons are promoted from the s to higher orbitals. s has to be filled first.

Choice (E) skips the 3s states completely, so that's out.

One should have an approximate idea of what the periodic table looks like. The transitional (d-state) elements do not occur until after 4s. Even so, the first row of transitional elements is labeled 3d. Since Phosphorous does not have enough electrons to qualify for a 4s or more state, choice (B) must be right.

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Comments
potentialwell
2009-08-08 13:10:49
as a general rule of thumb:
use the following table, crossing from bottom right to upper left, where the first arrow goes through 1s, the second goes through 2s, the third through 2p then 3 s, and so on. keep in mind s takes 2 electrons, p 6, d 10, and f 14.

.
.
.
4s 4p 4d 4f
3s 3p 3d
2s 2p
1s
nyuko
2009-11-04 22:57:36
as Yosun has reminded us: transitional elements occur after 4s. Your "rule of thrumb" does not work for transitional elements.
NEC
judijasa
2008-04-25 11:46:00
I think, an easier way to see why the answer is definetly B, instead of calling the "4S" criteria, is that before getting to the 3d subshell you have to fill the 3p just as the s,p,d,g,f order suggests.
judijasa
2008-04-25 11:48:14
Correction: the order is s,p,d,f,g, not s,p,d,g,f
NEC

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