The reason that some of the elements of period three and beyond are steady in spite of not sticking to the octet rule is due to the fact of possessing the tendency of forming large size, and a tendency of making more than four bonds. For example, sulfur, it belongs to period 3 and is big enough to hold six fluorine atoms as can be seen in the molecule SF₆, while the second period of an element like nitrogen may not be big to comprise 6 fluorine atoms.
The existence of unoccupied d orbitals are accessible for bonding for period 3 elements and beyond, the size plays a prime function than the tendency to produce more bonds. Hence, the suggestion of the second friend is correct.
In descriptive investigations, we still haven't formed any hypothesis yet so we seek information by asking question.
It's not repeatable because repeating the questions over and over again without any clue about what we want to seek is completely waste of time.
Hope this helps xox :)
Atomic Number of Zinc is 30, means it contains 30 electrons. So, its electronic configuration is as follow,
1s², 2s², 2p⁶, 3s², 3p⁶, 4s², 3d¹⁰
As,
1s², 2s², 2p⁶, 3s², 3p⁶ = Argon
So,
Electronic configuration of Zinc in shorthand notation is as follow,
[Ar] 4s², 3d¹⁰