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Bohr-Rutherford Diagrams

Bohr-Rutherford Diagrams show the numbers and locations of protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom.

How to draw a Bohr-Rutherford Diagram?

  1. Draw a nucleus –write the number of protons and neutrons inside the nucleus
  2. Draw orbitals around the nucleus
  3. Represent electrons as pairs of dots in the orbitals
  4. Draw electrons as dots on the rings that represent the energy levels.
  5. Each ring has a maximum number of electrons that it can hold.
  6. Using S, P, D, F to represent different orbitals, S can hold 2 electrons, P can hold 3 pairs, or 6 electrons, D can hold 5 pairs, or 10 electrons, and F can hold 7 pairs, or 14 electrons.
  7. The order the electrons fill the orbitals are: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, 4p, 5s, 4d, 5p, 6s, 4f, 5d, 6p, 7s, 5f, 6d, 7p, etc.
  8. Therefore, in Bohr-Rutherford Diagram, first (inner) ring can only hold 2 electrons (1s), the second ring can hold 8 (2s+2p), the third ring can hold 18 (3s+3p+ed) and the fourth ring can hold 32 (4s+4p+4d+4f), etc.

To see the Bohr-Rutherford Diagram of each and very element in the periodic table, use this URL: http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/te.html and replace "te" with the symbol of the element you want to check.