beardyramen t1_j9a0z3r wrote
Reply to comment by ArcadeAndrew115 in ELI5: How do we know for certain that atoms can't have more than 8 maximum outermost electrons when atoms form chemical bonds? Is there any research being done to see why atoms prefer the octet rule? by ArcadeAndrew115
Consider that in nuclear physics there are "magic numbers". I can remember 2, 4 and 8 being some of them, but at the moment i can't remember the rest.
These numbers are linked to very stable layouts, against unstable ones.
(Tritium is much less stable than deuterium for example) I don't think we have a definitive explanation as of how and why they work, but rember (as a very basic intuitive approach) that an even number of things can be easily arranged in symmetrical ways, and some arrangements are much easier to obtain than others (for example there are 8 evenly distributed vertices in a cube)
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