Question

what makes the outer shell electrons important is that they
a) determine the chemical reactivity of the atom
b) are not really important so they can be lost easily
c) will always seek out atoms that have the same number of outer shell electrons
d) tell you what element you’re dealing with if you only know how many electrons are in the outer shell

Answer 1

A, because the number of valence shell electrons (outer shell electrons) tells us how much the element or compound wants to bond or give up electrons. Most compounds and elements want to have eight valence ectrons in it's outer ring. So if an atom is far away from having eight, it will want to react more often.