How do I identify excited state through the electronic configuration

[505166714]

Does the down spin represent a higher energy? Is it okay if I put down arrows instead of arrows pointing up? How do I tell if the atom is in an excited state by looking at the electron configuration?

[Blake Salfer 1B]

An atom is in an excited state if the electron configuration is incorrect. Like for A if there were two up arrows in two separate boxes in the 2p orbitals it would be in its ground state. For C it is excited because there is a electron in 2p instead of a second electron in the 2s. The only element in its ground state is oxygen in letter D because the electron configuration is filled out correctly. I do not think the spin has anything to do with higher energy.

[Max Hayama 4K]

Arrow down does not necessarily represent an excited state, it only indicates that an electron has a spin opposite to arrow up. However, if the other electrons in the subshell have arrows upward and one is down, this signifies an excited state because the most stable/conventional spins for a half filled subshell is spins all in the same way(up or down). You can kind of tell if a electron is in the excited state, if it does not follow Pauli Exclusion Principle, Hund's Rule, or Aufbau.

[annabel 2A]

Is there a specific way that the electron configuration will change when the electron is excited?

[Sarah_Kang_2K]

Would anyone be able to share their notes from monday lecture with me? I wasn't able to make it. If so, if you could email me at sarah27kang@gmail.com, it'd be greatly appreciated!

[Sophia Ding 1B]

For the most part, I think you can tell an electron is in its excited state if the configuration deviates from what would be expected; in both (a) and (c) there are the abnormalities of filling Px and filling p before s respectively, thus representing an excited state. As for (b), I also want to emphasize your question as to whether spin down represents an excited state, as the answer stated that this was an excited state. I learned in high school to always do all orientations upwards in each subshell before putting the down arrows which is why this may be seen as excited, but I'm also curious as to why this downward orientation makes it so that the configuration is excited?