How many valence electrons are in carbon?

 Each carbon atom has 4 valence electrons.

Explanation:

To find out valence electrons of carbon,you need to look at the periodic table.For main group element,the group number is equal to the number of  valence electrons.

The element carbon is in group 4A,that is why it has four valence electrons(Just skip the letter A).If you say carbon is in group 14,then you need to consider unit place digit 4 for valence electrons.

Now I will show you how to find valance electrons of carbon from electron configuration.

The atomic number of carbon is six.So it has six protons and six electrons.

If you write electron configuration of carbon,the you will get the following:

C ---> 1s² 2s² 2p²

We know that valence electrons are the electrons that are found in the valence shell.Valence shell is the outter most shell.

We can easily found the outter most shell or valence shell considering the highest value of principal quantum number,n.

From C electron configuration,we see that the highest value of n is 2.So the second energy level of carbon is the outter most shell or valence shell.

C ---> 1s² 2s² 2p²

For carbon ,in its valence shell we are getting four valence electrons( 2s² 2p²).So C has 4 valence electrons.

The carbon atom use these valence electrons to form bonds.

Carbon can form four bonds.That is why its valence is four.Valence of an atom is the capacity of making bond.

Answer Link