[Corvettaholic]

I'm trying to reach back into my memory and remember how to figure how many available electrons there are in the outer shell of an atom. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it went something like this:

following straight across, column #1 has 1 available electron for bonding, column #2 has 2 electrons in the outer shell, skip transition metals cause they're all different. Lets say the column starting with boron is column #3, so that would have 3 electrons in the outer shell, next column starting with carbon would have 4 electrons there, and so on until you hit noble gases which have all 8 electron spots filled up and therefore are inert.

I remember drawing pictures to visualize how atoms bond together and where the electrons are in relation to the bond, someone have any "beginner" pictures they can upload?

[hmx9123]

Your counting method is the general idea.  I do not have any pictures off hand.

[AWK]

Helium is also a noble gas and has two electrons.

[chemicalLindsay]

Id have to agree with eight cause as you go across the period outer shells go from near empty to full.Ive had a look and the maximum amount of electrons that I seem to find is 8 and that is always the noble gas outer shell electron arrangement and that is why ( I think) they are so stable because both there shells are full.But I remember reading somewhere about the octet rule and I think that would have something to do with it as every atom strives to be as stable as possible.Correct me If im wrong cause Im curios about this to oh and the collins gem chemistry dictionary is good for things and revision like this)

[hmx9123]

I think that AWK was pointing out the exception to the octet rule in the way of noble gasses; that is, that helium is a noble gas but only has two electrons.  Helium does have a full orbital, though, which makes it a noble gas.