Core Atomic Structure II: Electronic Structure

Core Atomic Structure: Electronic Structure

Slide 15 of 44

Analogy: Transition and corresponding energy change

To go one further then, the coal truck has higher potential energy (smaller negative potential energy) at level 1 than at level 2.

–Therefore, level 1 is at a higher energy level than level 2.

–The farther away the level is from the bottom of the shaft the closer it is to the ground level, and

–the closer it is to the ground level the smaller the negative potential energy of the coal truck and therefore the higher the potential energy content of the coal truck.

The situation is similar in the case of an atom.

The bottom of the pit is the nucleus and the different levels would be the shells and the truck electron.

–The only difference here is that in the mine shaft of an atom, there may be more than one truck.

(It may help you to actually imagine the atom to be like the earth with the nucleus representing the center of the planet.)