Electron Configuration of Aluminum

To find the electron configuration of an atom, you first need to know the number of electrons that it has. Since aluminum's atomic number is thirteen, it has thirteen electrons. You then split the electrons between the different orbitals. Aluminum's first two electrons fall in the 1s orbital, and the following two electrons go in the 2s orbital. The next six electrons fill the 2p orbital in the second shell (that's ten electrons so far, three more to go). Then electrons 11 and 12 fill the 3s orbital. Finally the last electron occupies the 3p orbital. 

The electron configuration for Aluminum is 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p¹. The ground state electron configuration is [Ne]3s²3p¹.