What is a natural way an atom may become excited?
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Electromagnetic Radiation\n\nElectromagnetic radiation is the result of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. The wave of energy generated by such vibrations moves through space at the speed of light. And well it should... for visible light is indeed one form of electromagnetic (EM) radiation.
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Use toothpicks and colored gumdrops.\n\nChoose a color for: protons, neutrons, and electrons.\n\nThen use the colored gumdrops to represent them. for example, use 2 blue gumdrops for the protons, 2 red gumdrops for the electrons.\n\nthen connect them using the toothpicks- so end result is it looks lke an atom with te protons in the middle (nucleus) and electrons on the outside.
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It's a Chemical/Fusion reaction...
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A neutral atom is redundant. The atom is neutral by nature. When the atom gets a positive charge then becomes a cation and when it gets a negative charge, becomes an anion.\nin the atom, the positive charges (protons) and the negative charges (electrons) are balanced.
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In theory, yes.  You create a new element each time you add one more proton to the previous one.\n\nIn practice, there seems to be a practical limit to the stability of the artificial elements that requires exponentially increasing amounts of energy to create the heavier artificial elements.  And since these new elements are usually only stable for tiny fractions of a second, we can't hold them in place for long enough to pump another proton in.\n\nInstead, what physicists do is take larger stable atoms and smash them together, and then look for signs of new elements based on their expected decay particles.
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Lots and lots of atoms fusing to make bigger and bigger atoms.
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Atoms have a nucleus ( composed of protons and neutrons) and a cloud of electrons. The number of the different components varies between different elements.\n\nElectrons can only have specific energy levels in an atom - that is the energy is not continious but quantized. This is different from, say, the solar system, because a planet could theoretically be in any orbit. But we know from quantum mechanics (and many, many experiments) that electons can only occupy certain "orbits."\n\nSometimes an electron can be bumped into a higher orbit (the higher orbits have less energy, because they are not as tightly bound) or kicked out of the atom altogether. If a second electron moves into the spot it will release energy as it falls into that level.\n\nHydrogen is the easiest element to study. The nucleus is a single proton, and it can have only one electron. The different energy levels can be illustrated like this:\nhttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hyde.html#c2\n(though in reality electrons don't travel on nice orbits)\n\nIf an electron in the second lowest level does a "quantum leap" to the very lowest, it will emit energy - light - at a very specific frequency. In this case 656 nanometers, which is red. If, on the other hand, an electron falls from the 3rd level down to the 1st level the emitted light is blue.\n\nA "spectrum" will show all of these distinct levels, with the brighter ones being the most common. This shows the spectrum of hydrogen with a diagram of the quantum leaps:\nhttp://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hyde.html#c4\n\nIn other atoms it becomes more complex, not every jump is allowed, and in the precense of a magnetic field a "fine structure" is seen in the spectrum, as some of the main lines look double.\n\nThe result of all of this is that each different atom will give a different characteristic spectrum. So, you can use this to identify different elements in anything from crime scene samples to distant galaxies.
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Start thinking of electrons in an atom as probability clouds...or regions of space around the atom at a given radius where the probability is high that the electron will exist.  Bohr theory ("orbits") is not complete, in fact it's not an accurate depiction of the electrons in an atom.\n\nThe reason the electron's don't radiate while "orbiting" is that they don't "orbit" anything!!  Instead, there are regions of space around the atom where the probability of an electron existing at any instant is non-zero.  Excited electrons may lose energy and drop to a lower energy level (to a smaller radius from the atom), in which case the electron will radiate energy in the form of a photon whose energy is equal to the difference in energy levels (excited state - lower state).  \n\nAs a concrete example, this radiation from dropping to lower energy states is the basis of lasing action and the principle on which lasers operate.\n\nAs I said, think in terms of the quantum mechanical description of the electron rather than the Bohr theory.  It's not over your head, believe me, just study quantum mechanics.  Start with the electron in a Hydrogen atom, it's the simplest case (a 1 electron atom!!)\n\nI hope this helps.
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This is because when heated, the atom gains energy. The electron in the atom will be excited to a higher energy level. After a while, it would lose the gained energy and release the gained energy in the form of light. Hence, coloured light is produced when they release energy. Some elements only produced certain colour because of the energy required to excite from one state to another are different from other elements. Elements can only be excited from one state to another with specific energy. In other word, the energy is quantised. This is related to the quantum theory. More info can be found on the net and textbook.
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Wow, I have a test on this tomorrow =D\n\nWell, ground state is basically saying that it is a nuetral atom.  Are you stating for the location of the electron, so for Calcium -\nStarting from the beginning...\n\n1s^2\n2s^22p^2p^2p^2\n3s^23p^2p^2p^2\n4s^2\nOr the Abbreviated [Ar] 4s^2\n\nEdit -  I guess I should clarify what each symbol means...\nThe first quantum number is the energy level, going from 1-7\nThe second quantum number, or in this case, letter, states the type of orbit that the electron follows, the letters are s p d f\nThe third quantum number is an extension of number 2, basically, there is always s (1), ppp (3) , ddddd (5), ffffffffffffff (14), and refers to the different orientations of that orbit, so for f, there are 14 different ways it can be presented around the nucleus,\nThe Fourth quantum number states how many electrons are present in the orbit. So the 4th is the 2 in 1s^2, saying the level is full, for there can only be two electrons occupying each energy orbit.\n\nFor absorption, an electron enters the excited state, where it jumps an energy level, when it recieves energy.  This is absorption. For emission, it occures after absorption, in which an electron leaves the excited state, through emitting a photon, a kind of energy, thus why it is emission.  It then drops an energy level, eventually to the ground state.\n\nFor the light spectrum, the black lines show the photon signature that the electron releases.  When it releases the energy in the form of a photon, it can be seen as light on the spectrum, and if the wave length of the emission is correct, it can be visable. The black lines just indicate the wave length of the emitted photon. For example, when electron in potassium leave the excited state while burning, they give off a purplish pinkish light. That's their signature.\n\nFor the excited state, that's explained in emission and absorption.\n\nThe flaw in Bohr's model? Well, electron do not travel in set paths.  Bohr's model illustrated exact paths according to energy levels. the flaw was that it was only possible in the Hydrogen atom. In other atoms, the electrons' negative charges oppose each other and throw the other out.  It only works in hydrogen because there only is one electron.  In truth, electron travel a more random path within their energy levels, more sporadic, but in a basic area, or orbit.  This pattern is called the electron cloud, because of the uncertainty on where an electron will be at any given time.\n\nWoo, thanks for the warm-up on my test tomorrow. Good luck!
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when electrons get energy or heat, they use that energy to move from their ground state to their excited state. \n\ntheir excited state is not very stable, so they move back down in energy to their ground state.\n\nthey release the energy in the form of a color when they return to their ground state.\n\nthe amount of energy the electron absorbs (and then releases) determines the color. purple has the most energy, and red has the least.\n\ni hope this was helpful!
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There are fundamentally many ways to answer this question; and I will address three.\n\nIn nuclear chemistry, there are four fundamental interactions of matter that can be termed energy:\n\n1. Strong interaction, or strong force. This is the force which holds together quarks and other subnuclear particles into discreet protons, neutrons, and electrons. This is the energy that is released in a nuclear reaction.\n\n2. Weak interaction, or weak force. This is the force which holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of an atom. This is the energy that is released in radioactive decay.\n\n3. Electromagnetism. This is the attractive or repulsive force caused by the positive or negative charge of atomic particles and the electromagnetic field of photons. This force is the most wide in function, and is present in practically every conventional phenomenon. The electromagnetic force is responsible for electron orbitals, for chemical bonds and reactions, for electromagnetic radiation, and fundamentally for traditional force.\n\n4. Gravity. This is the tendency of objects with mass to accelerate toward each other. This is the weakest force, but can act over an almost unlimited distance.\n\nOR ....\n\nIn classic chemistry, a molecule can have three kinds of energy:\n\n1. Transitional energy, or the energy relative to motion.\n\n2. Chemical energy, or the energy inherent to electrochemical bonds.\n\n3. Vibrational energy, or energy relative to the vibration or oscillation of individual molecules.\n\nOR ...\n\nIn physics, we categorize all energy in the universe into two sets:\n\n1. Potential energy. This is the energy inherent in position or interaction with another body.\n\n2. Kinetic energy. This is the energy a mass possesses relative to its motion, whether it be classic velocity or vibration. This is sometimes termed work, though this is technically incorrect; both kinetic and potential energy are work, in different forms.\n\nAnd there you have it.
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it says that shooting a certain amount of light on metals will cause it to release electrons.Because that means that light actually can do something, it must be a particle, otherwise it would be something that can't really touch other objects and cause something to happen
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Atoms have what are called "orbitals" which are sorts of energy states that electrons can acheive.  A certain set of orbitals are considered the ground state, which is to say that a neutral atom (meaning the atom has as many electrons as protons) will be at its lowest energy state when all electrons occupy the ground state orbitals.  However, an electron can acquire extra energy which will raise the electron to a higher orbital.  This can be done by heat or light.  When an electron is elevated to a higher orbital, it is unstable, and it will eventually drop.  When it drops back down to groundd state, it will release a photon which has a specific amount of energy--the difference in enrgy between the higher and lower orital.\n\nEnergy in a photon relates to its wavelength, and wavelength relates to color.  Hence, for a given type of atom, the transition between two orbitals (which is set by the nucleus involving physical chemistry matters that are way too complex to speel out here) will always require a certain amount of energy, and the relaxation of an electron between those states will always release a photon of a specific color.
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Any orbital other than the 1s  orbital is excited if populated.  2s, 2p, 3s,3p, 3d....
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom
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a nuclear reaction involves the splitting of an atom, which as you might suspect is very difficult.  a huge amount of energy is holding that atom together, and when the atom is split, that energy is released as heat... an enormous amount of heat