Why are the names of electron shells starting with K? Why not start with A?

Answer 1

From Wikipedia: "Barkla labelled them with the letters K, L, M, etc. (The origin of this terminology was alphabetic. K and L were originally called B and A, but were later renamed to leave room for hypothetical spectral lines that were never discovered.) These letters were later found to correspond to the n-values 1, 2, 3, etc. They are used in the spectroscopic Siegbahn notation."

Answer 2

The existence of electron shells was first observed experimentally in Charles Barkla's and Henry Moseley's X-ray absorption studies. Barkla labelled them with the letters K, L, M, etc. (The origin of this terminology was alphabetic. K and L were originally called B and A, but were later renamed to leave room for hypothetical spectral lines that were never discovered.)

Basically, they started with K because they thought that perhaps there were other shells that had not yet been discovered that would go first; but since none have been discovered, they start with K.

Answer 3

hi Niff T right here ok interior the shells stands for kernel meaning the internal maximum in greek. so the internal maximum shell replaced into represented via ok and for the sake of convenience the subsequent snells have been termed alphabetically.

Answer 4

apparently it was to leave room for possible spectral lines that were later never found