The atomic number of phosphorus (P) is 15, which means it has 15 electrons in total. To determine the number of electrons in the L shell, we need to know the electronic configuration of phosphorus. The electronic configuration of phosphorus is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p3.
To find out how many electrons are in the L shell, we need to add up the number of electrons in the 2s and 2p subshells. The 2s subshell contains 2 electrons, and the 2p subshell contains 6 electrons. Therefore, the total number of electrons in the L shell of phosphorus is 8.
So the answer is 8.