Excited state help

[Michael Lonsway 3O]

I was looking through chapter 2 and I'm wondering how can you tell if an element has gone through an excited state? I know that if an electron skips an orbital it can occur but I'm wondering how else it occurs and why does it happen.

[halabaradi_1A]

An electron can go into an excited state because it absorbs the specific required energy needed to jump to a higher orbital. At this state, the atom is unstable and not at the lowest energy. When the electron falls back to the ground state, it emits energy in the form of photons. When looking at the electron configuration, if not all the electrons are in the lowest state they can occupy, they are excited. If you can move one electron down to a lower energy level by looking at the electron configuration, then you've put it back into the ground level. I hope this helps!