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Number of Electron Shells in an Element

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Jessi:
I'm in Physical Science, which is basically breezing through the fundamentals of both Physics and Chemistry. We just started our Chemistry Unit and have been given our first assignment. I don't even understand the first problem, and most of them are pretty much asking the same thing!  ::)

"How many electron shells would be completely filled by a neutral atom of xenon? How many would be left over?"

The only guess I could come up with was 54, because that's the atomic number (which is the number of protons/electrons, right?). But then there wouldn't be any left over...so I don't know what I missed in my notes!

If someone could better explain that concept for me, I'd very much appreciate it. ;D

Also, I'll probably be posting similar problems to this same thread to have you smart folks check my answers (once I get them), so I hope that's alright!

Donaldson Tan:
look up the electronic configuration of Xe at http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?page=periodictable

any general chemistry textbooks will tell you the order of orbitals you should fill up to make up the electronic configuration.

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