The atomic number of chlorine is 17. give the electron configuration for a neutral atom of chlorine

The neutral atom chlorine has an atomic number of 17 therefore it also contains a total of 17 electrons. We can write its ground state electronic configuration as 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p5

Additional info we can get here is that since the last one is 3p5 therefore its valence electron is 5.

the electronic configuration of an atom with eight electrons is 1s²2s²2p⁴. the orbital diagrams are shown in the figure.

as per the hunds rule:

1. electrons tend to avoid being in the same orbital as per as practicable.

2. electrons in different orbitals of the same energy will have their spin parallel.

this can be illustrated from the multiplicity of the orbitals of the atom. as there are four electrons in the p orbital and p orbital has 3 sub-shells. the electrons can be fed in different ways as shown in the figure but the correct orbital diagram will be as per the hunds rule.