What is the chemical symbol for [Ne] 3s^2 3p^5

Answer 1

A check of the periodic table will show that the element in question is chlorine, symbol Cl.

Answer 2

The way that we write this notation is kind of like a map. So [Ne] tells you you need to start at Neon, the [] notation is to shorten the 'directions' were writing. You always start your bracket at the closest PREVIOUS noble gas to the element your talking about. The previous noble gas here is [Ne] so that's where we start. If we look at the periodic table, the next thing we look at is the '3s' so the s orbital can be roughly said to occupy the first 2 columns. So the first box, is the 3s¹ because it's the 3rd row, 1st column. The 2nd box is 3s² because it's the 3rd row, 2nd column. After the s's are the p's in the 3rd column (because there are no elements in between them, the 4th column introduces the d's which are the ten elements in between the 's' and the 'ps'). There are 6 p's total. You're looking for 3p⁵, so it's Cl, Chlorine. So now we put it together like a set of directions. [Ne] is where we started. We had to cross the 2 s's in the 3rd column so now we're at [Ne] 3s². Finally, we had to cross and end at the 5th p to get to Cl, so we end up at [Ne] 3s² 3p⁵.