Need help with a chemistry question ...atomic structure ?

Question

here it goes .....u know how there is a minimum amount of energy required to move an electron in its ground state from one orbital 2 another in its excited state ....the question is if the energy supplied to the electron is a little less than the required amount then what will happen to the lectron ???

a. it will go towards the next orbital but return halfway

b. it will just start revolving in an orbit or

c. no change occurs

i need a quick answer with explanation please ...our teacher at our coaching classes asked us this ...i think its b but i've no idea why ...so can anyone help !!!

Answer 1

no change I believe electrons can only exist at certain energy levels. either they are at one orbital or another there is no in between .

here look at molecular  orbital theory

the electrons can only exist at certain energy levels. There is nothing in between. If it can't make it up to the next orbital it will stay in the lower energy orbital. http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/vchemlib/course/m...

the general idea is that electron can only occupy certain energy levels (orbitals). There are no orbitals or energy levels in between. Either the electron goes up to the next orbital of it doesn't.

based on this a will not work because there are no energy levels or orbitals in between. b will not work because the electron is already moving around. It would make no sense if you answered b. and also the electron is already moving it is not stationary excited or not.

Answer 2

i will say its a) the explanation;

During chem class we learned that like s p d f stages they are behaving differently. the most stable is s only can accept 2 electrons with different spins, next if you move to the p stage there is different energy level which is higher than 2s stage but lower than 3s stage (I am talking about 2p stage) so d behaves similar way its a bit higher than 3p stage but lover than 4s, except 3d5 4s1. there are exceptions. well Based on this knowledge i will say a)