How to Find the Valence Electrons for Helium (He)

There are two ways to find the number of valence electrons in Helium (He). The first is to use the Periodic Table to figure out how many electrons Helium has in its valence shell.

Although all of the other elements in Group 18 (also called 8A) have eight valence electrons in their highest energy level (and have a full outer shell) Helium only has two. However, because Helium has a total of two electrons it’s 1s orbital (it’s outer shell) is full, and it is considered a Noble Gas.

You can also look at the electron configuration to determine the number of valence electrons for Helium. The number of electrons in the highest energy level gives you the number of valence electrons. Using this method we’ll also determine that Helium has two valence electrons.

Helpful videos:

Another element with the same number of valence electrons as Helium is Argon.

Drawing/writing done in InkScape. Screen capture done with Camtasia Studio 4.0. Done on a Dell Dimension laptop computer with a Wacom digital tablet (Bamboo).

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This was so helpful! Thank you! Loved the video!