Ground state vs Excited state
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Ground state vs Excited state
What is the difference between the ground state and excited state in terms of electron configuration? How can you tell that from the electron configuration which state it is in?
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
The ground state is the "normal" state of the electrons for a stable element. The excited state occurs when the electrons absorb energy and "jump" to a new/higher energy state. You will know because the lower energy electron shells will be unfilled, and a higher energy state will have electrons. For example: 1s2*2s2*2p4*3s1 vs 1s2*2s2*2p5
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
To add on, the best way to tell whether an element is in its ground state or its excited state is to first figure out what the ground state electron configuration is. Then, compare that to the given electron configuration to see whether or not an element has been excited.
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
An atom in its ground state will have an electron configuration that follows Hund's rule and Pauli's exclusion principle. This means that electrons will fill orbitals from lower --> higher energy states (ie. 1s2, 2s2, 2p6...). Except for certain exceptions (like copper and chromium), electrons will always fill orbitals following those patterns. If an electron configuration shows that one electron is in a higher state than it should otherwise be according to those principles (ie. 1s2, 2s2, 2p5, 3s1), then it means that the atom is in an excited state.
Re: Ground state vs Excited state
The ground state is easy enough to find just by looking at its placement on the periodic table and then going through the electron configuration from there. Ground state means the normal amount of electrons it's supposed to have. On the flip side, if the problem gives you an electron configuration and asks whether it's in ground state or excited you can compare it to what it is "normally" on the periodic table and if the shells are filled to their correct number and orders.
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
Hi, ground state is essentially the "normal" state when it comes to configuration. Both Pauli's Exclusion Principle and Hund's Rule completely dictate the filling of orbitals. In an excited state, the orbitals are not filled in the "normal" way. The lower energy state will not be completely filled as the excited electrons will jump to a higher state. This can be seen in the image below wherein carbon is in its ground state in the upper image with 1s^2 2s^2 2p^2. The lower image shows its excited state with the configuration 1s^2 2s^1 2p^3.
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
Ground state means that all lower electron configuration levels are filled prior to moving on to the next one. For Carbon, ground state would be: 1s22s23p2.
Excited states means that one of the lower levels is not filled with electrons all the way prior to moving into the next one. For Carbon, this would be: 1s22s13p3.
Hope this helps!
Excited states means that one of the lower levels is not filled with electrons all the way prior to moving into the next one. For Carbon, this would be: 1s22s13p3.
Hope this helps!
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
In ground state, the electrons will fill up every orbital starting at the lowest and going up (ie 1s2 2s2 2p6...) but with the excited state an electron will jump up to a higher orbital and leave one lower orbital open. You can see what state it is in by looking at each orbital and making sure they are all full before filling a later one.
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
If you are given an electron configuration and asked if the atom is in its ground state, first count the number of electrons in the configuration. Then, you can figure out what element the configuration is for, write the ground state configuration, and see if they match.
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Re: Ground state vs Excited state
I believe you can tell by the electron configurations. If you drew/ wrote out the electron configuration and there were electrons in another state or more/less electrons that usual, then it is not in ground state.
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