Difference between excited and ground state electrons

[Brandon Achugbue 3H]

When given an element's electron configuration, how do we know whether it's in its excited state or ground state? How does it change the electron configuration?

[Ella Henrickson 3I]

If any of the electrons are in unexpected conditions (like they jumped to another subshell and it goes from 1s2s2p to 1s2s2p3s). The ground state is the lowest energy state the electrons can be in, and is usually what they are always "trying" to get to.

[Brandon Achugbue 3H]

Thanks Ella, that makes sense!

I guess I'm still confused as to the rules surrounding excited states, like can an electron just randomly "jump" to another subshell? Or are they only excited by some outside energy, and the exact excited state will always be explained to us on a problem in practice?

(I figured out the homework problem I was having trouble on regarding this topic, but I'm just curious in case anyone has an answer)

[Aliza Hacking 1A]

Hi!! So I don't think electrons would just randomly be excited; they have to absorb some sort of energy to become excited or change levels, kind of comparable to what you would see with the En spectral line equations. Generally for this class, I would say if the state given to you is anything but what you know to be ground state you can probably assume it is some form of excited state. I'm not totally sure what variable would determine how an excited state might manifest in different ways in an atom besides the basics of an electron moving up one level/orbital above what we would expect, though. I think generally if it's a nonobvious type of excited state or something it'll probably be given in the question :)

[Jaylin Hsu 1C]

Hi, so the ground state electron configuration is basically when all the electrons are in the lowest energy state possible. They fill in all the lower orbitals and shells first. On the other hand, excited electron configurations occur when electrons jump energy levels without filling in all the lower shells first, leaving some incomplete.