Question

How many electrons does gold have?

Answer 1

Hint: The position in the modern periodic table and the atomic number of gold will help us solve this illustration more easily. The neutral atom will have an equal number of electrons and protons in its volume.

Complete step by step solution:
Let us study about the given atom in detail;
Gold-Gold is the chemical element present in the periodic table in the period 6 and group 11. The symbol for gold is Au (derived from Latin name ‘Aurum’).
The atomic number of gold is 79 and the electronic configuration is $\left[ Xe \right]4{{f}^{14}}5{{d}^{10}}6{{s}^{1}}.$ As, the gold is in the neutral form thus, the number of protons in the nucleus will be equal to the number of electrons present in it.
Protons- The atomic number showcases the number of protons present in the nucleus of an atom. These are the positive entities of an atom present in the nucleus along with either equal or sometimes unequal number of neutrons.
Electrons- These are the revolving negative entities of an atom distributed along the shells of the same. In a neutral atom, the number of electrons and protons will be equal.

Now, we can say that the gold will have 79 electrons in total.

Note: As gold is a transition metal and has a vast electronic distribution, the number of valence electrons will not always be constant. In its ionic form, the number of electrons will vary due to ion formation.