Energy Level Excited

[Ian_Lee_1E]

What does it mean to have electron excited?

What happens when the energy excites the electron and what happens when electron goes back to its ground state?

It says that hydrogen emits light when energy goes back to the ground state.

[Jillian Labador 3E]

To my understanding, for an electron to be excited, it needs to have energy which is supplied by a photon(s) of light. When the electron becomes excited with energy, it can move up to a higher energy level. When the electron returns to its ground state, it releases the same amount of energy that it was supplied with (in accordance with the law of conservation of mass). Since hydrogen atoms only have one electron, the ground state of the electron will always be n = 1 which is known as the Lyman series (or UV light).

[kristinalaudis3e]

An excited electron is one that gains energy through photons and this makes it move to an energy level higher than the ground state. I like to think of the ground state as the base level that electrons are already on. So when it moves from a higher energy level back to its ground state, it is releasing the same amount of energy that made it excited and move to the higher energy level. I hope this helps :)

[Mackenzie Stockton 2H]

For an electron to be excited, it has to absorb a photon of light with a frequency (v) that matches the specific energy difference between two energy levels/shells. After the electron is excited, it will eventually come back down to the lower energy state, emitting a photon with the same frequency/energy that was absorbed. When excited, delta E (energy of electrons) is positive, and when the electron goes back to a lower energy state, it releases energy, so delta E is negative.

[Kelly Tran 1J]

An electron being excited means that the electron is moving up to a higher energy level. In order for the electron to move up to a higher energy level, the energy of the incoming photon must be sufficient enough to overcome the threshold energy (the energy required to remove an electron). When the energy of the photon excites the electron, the photon of light is absorbed and the electron moves to a higher energy level. Eventually, the electron will return to its ground state, and when it does, it emits energy in the form of a photon with the same frequency as the photon of light that was absorbed.

[KhanTran3K]

Hi!
I believe some others touched on the idea of the energy levels, but I think it is important to mention the way in which energy is quantized. When an electron is "excited," meaning absorbing the energy from photons of light at the right wavelengths, it will excite the electron to specific energy levels. Depending on the energy absorbed will dictate which energy level the electron will go to. When emitting light at these specific energy levels, it also shows us the study of spectroscopy and these specific spectral lines, as it is unique to each atom. Also, the higher the energy level, the higher the frequency emitted from the atom as it goes back to its ground state. I hope this helps!

[Jaden Haskins 2E]

How do you correctly interpret quantum numbers to figure out the neutral state of an electron when you're given an excited state? Sapling said something about how you just count the total number of electrons of the excited state, and that is the atomic number of the neutral state. Is that correct?

[Tanner Bartyczak 1K]

I believe so. Exciting an atom does not add or remove electrons, so the number of electrons in the ground and any excited state are the same, giving you the atomic number.

[Brandon McClelland3L]

When an electron becoming excited mostly just means it has a lot of energy. This generally results in it moving up an energy level. When it returns to ground state, it releases its extra energy as a photon. It requires more energy to be in a higher energy level.