A new element has been discovered. Scientists are trying to determine where it should it be placed on the periodic table. In order to do this they must determine the following about the element:

Elements are placed in order on the periodic table based on their atomic number, how many protons they have. In a neutral atom, the number of electrons will equal the number of protons, so we can easily determine electron number from atomic number.

the old alchemists made significant contributions to science even though there starting premises were off a bit. their conclusions after failure would steer them into better directions for investigation. science is no more than close observation and the initial mistakes result in rethinking and retrying experiments.