This atom is sulfur (if the electrons are equal to the protons/not an ion). You can tell the number of valence electrons by looking at the individual shell. The first shell (1s) can only hold 2 electrons. The second shell (2s and 2p) can hold 8 electrons. The third shell (3s and 3p), which is the valence shell, only has 6 out of its possible 8 electrons, so this atom has 6 valence electrons.
The answer would be the ability to be tested. If a hypothesis is testable, it would of course lead you to test it. Which, by definition is a new experiment.
