What does excited atom mean

Asked 5 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 1 month ago. Viewed 3k times. Edit: I guess the answer is that there are two explanation for "excitation": Electron gets to higher orbitals One particular atom is moving at a higher speed compared with the rest of its neighbouring atoms. Improve this question. Sidarth Sidarth 7 7 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges. Like sp3-hybridization?

I think not. Hybridization in generally considered a ground state effect. Also, atoms can get excited in collisions. If an atom is made to move faster, even though it has higher energy compared to the initial state, this is not called exciting an atom right?

It has got to do only with the electrons. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Nicola Bernini Nicola Bernini 4 4 bronze badges. I have chosen as physical system the Hydrogen Atom so I have put the frame of reference centered on the atom itself hence to focus just on its internal state and degrees of freedom If you are putting the frame of reference outside of the atom, you can consider also its potential due to an external field and kinetic energy but then your system becomes a gas.

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So you can't use a enumeration of states for one electron to label the states of the atom. The same rule applies here: states and their energies are associated with systems, not lone parts of the system. The electrons are not distinguishable and so you can't say which electron was it that got excited. The question doesn't even make sense. In nuclear physics, an exited atom is exited due to its nuclei spins being aligned in a energetically not minimized constellation.

This can happen due to external energy intake or as a part of a radioactive decay where the mother nucleus' spin constellation is carried over but then nearly instantaneous changes in its daugther nucleus.

The freed energy of the spin flipping is emitted as a photon at high energy gamma radiation. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. What does excitation in an atom mean? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 5 months ago. Active 6 years, 5 months ago. Viewed 2k times.