electron jumping?

Question

when electrons jump to a higher shell when they absorb photons and emit a color,does it mean electrons closer to the nucleus jump to outer shells..if so whats happening to the electrons in the outer most shell if anything

Answer 1

When valence electrons are "excited" (which means given extra energy), they will jump to a higher orbital. In the process, they will absorb energy as well as a particular set of wavelengths from the electromagnetic spectrum. This will always happen when electrons jump to a higher orbita; even if you do not see a color change, this only means that the absorption wavelengths are not within visible spectrum (meaning they could be infrared or ultraviolet etc).

When electrons fall back to their original orbitals, energy is emitted as a photon of the exact same wavelengths that the electron absorbed when it was excited. This means that, if an electron absorbed green color when it jumped up orbitals, it will release green color when it falls back to its original orbital. Also, the electron does not always have to fall back into its original orbital from the high orbital it is in; it can fall anywhere in between, but eventually will end up back in its original orbital.

Once all the valence electrons have jumped orbitals (or left the atom), then inner electrons on the next shell can start jumping orbitals.

Answer 2

When an electron absorbs energy , it jumps to a higher shell. When it gives off energy in the form of photons, it jumps to a lower shell. There is no limit to the number of shells. They go to infinity.

Answer 3

Electrons will jump to a shell that matches the energy of the photon, then re-emit that photon when they fall back to their ground state. If no energy level configuration matches a photon it will not be absorbed in the first place.

The outermost electrons are the ones that participate in absorption. If the inner shells are filled they tend to stay that way.

Answer 4

The outer ones have to jump first before inner ones can jump. Electrons can only jump to unfilled quantum state.