{"id":248767,"date":"2025-07-08T18:04:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=248767"},"modified":"2025-07-08T18:04:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:04:47","slug":"which-of-the-following-electron-configurations-represent-an-excited-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/08\/which-of-the-following-electron-configurations-represent-an-excited-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Which of the following electron configurations represent an excited state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which of the following electron configurations represent an excited state? [He] 2s^1 2p^5 [Kr] 4d^10 5s^2 5p^1 [Ar] 3d^10 4s^2 4p^5 [Ne] 3s^2 3p^2 4s^1<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The correct electron configuration that represents an excited state is <strong>[Ne] 3s\u00b2 3p\u00b2 4s\u00b9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an atom, electrons fill orbitals following the Aufbau principle, which dictates that electrons should fill the lowest energy orbitals first. For example, in the ground state configuration, the 3p orbital would fully fill with two electrons, and the 4s orbital would fill before the 3d orbital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, when an atom absorbs energy, one or more electrons may jump to a higher energy level or an excited state. In this case, <strong>[Ne] 3s\u00b2 3p\u00b2 4s\u00b9<\/strong>, one of the electrons from the 3p orbital is promoted to the 4s orbital, which is an excited state because the 4s orbital is typically filled after the 3p orbital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s break down the configurations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>[He] 2s\u00b9 2p\u2075<\/strong>: This is a configuration that could be for a fluorine atom (F). The 2p orbital should have 6 electrons in the ground state. Therefore, this configuration is incorrect because it has one fewer electron than expected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>[Kr] 4d\u00b9\u2070 5s\u00b2 5p\u00b9<\/strong>: This is the configuration of a neutral element like indium (In). The 5p orbital is only partially filled, and this configuration is normal, not excited.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>[Ar] 3d\u00b9\u2070 4s\u00b2 4p\u2075<\/strong>: This corresponds to an atom like bromine (Br), which is in its ground state, with a full 4s and 4p subshell. No electron has been promoted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>[Ne] 3s\u00b2 3p\u00b2 4s\u00b9<\/strong>: This is the excited state of an atom like silicon (Si). The 3p orbital is partially filled in the ground state with two electrons, but here one electron has been promoted to the 4s orbital, which is not the normal filling order, indicating an excited state.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus, the configuration <strong>[Ne] 3s\u00b2 3p\u00b2 4s\u00b9<\/strong> represents an excited state because it shows an electron in an orbital (4s) that would typically not be filled before the 3p orbital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner8-312.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-248768\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which of the following electron configurations represent an excited state? [He] 2s^1 2p^5 [Kr] 4d^10 5s^2 5p^1 [Ar] 3d^10 4s^2 4p^5 [Ne] 3s^2 3p^2 4s^1 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The correct electron configuration that represents an excited state is [Ne] 3s\u00b2 3p\u00b2 4s\u00b9. Explanation: In an atom, electrons fill orbitals following the Aufbau [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}