How many dots belong in the electron dot diagram of a boron (8) atom? three five eight thirteen

## Step 1:<br />An electron dot diagram, also known as a Lewis dot structure, is a way to represent the valence electrons in an atom. Valence electrons are the electrons in the outermost shell of an atom and are involved in chemical bonding.<br /><br />## Step 2:<br />Boron has an atomic number of 5, which means a neutral boron atom has 5 protons and, to be electrically neutral, must also have 5 electrons.<br /><br />## Step 3:<br />The electron configuration for boron is \(1s^2 2s^2 2p^1\). This means that boron has 2 electrons in the first shell (1s), 2 electrons in the second shell's s-orbital (2s), and 1 electron in the second shell's p-orbital (2p).<br /><br />## Step 4:<br />The valence electrons are the ones in the outermost shell, which for boron is the second shell. Therefore, boron has 3 valence electrons (2s^2 2p^1).<br /><br />## Step 5:<br />In an electron dot diagram, we represent these valence electrons as dots around the symbol for the element. Each dot represents one valence electron.<br /><br />### The formula for the electron dot diagram of boron is:<br />\[ \text{B} \cdot \cdot \cdot \]