I'm going to teach noble gas electron configurations by example. The noble gas electron configuration for carbon is the symbol of helium and brackets followed by 2S2, 2P2. Below the noble gas electron configuration is the full electron configuration for carbon. I highlighted 1S2 in the full electron configuration because 1S2 is the electron configuration for helium. To write a noble gas electron configuration, choose the atom you would like to write the electron configuration for, in this case, carbon. Then locate the nearest preceding noble gas. In this case, it was helium. Write this symbol for that noble gas helium in brackets. Then write the remainder of the electron configuration for the atom. Another example is phosphorus. The noble gas electron configuration for phosphorus is neon in brackets followed by 3S2, 3P3. The nearest preceding noble gas for phosphorus is neon. Then write the remainder of the electron configuration for phosphorus. The noble gas electron configuration for the germanium is a symbol of argon followed by 4S2, 3D10, 4P2. We choose argon because argon is the nearest preceding noble gas from germanium. Finally, we'll look at zirconium. The nearest preceding gas from zirconium is krypton. Write the symbol for krypton and write the remainder of the noble gas for zirconium by zirconium. Now there's 2 for d2. Noble gas electron configurations are a shorthand way of writing electron configurations.