Electronic Charge Visualization

[inpyodakid]

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I am having trouble visualizing the concept of charge on subatomic particles, in coulombs. I can easily visualize kg and m due to familiarity but electricity is one of my weak points. Can someone explain to me in simple terms what charge is and how I can better visualize its nature...

thanks in advance🙂

 

[inpyodakid]

I read about nuclides being related to isotopes but I don't know for sure its definition. I believe it said that nuclides refer to a specific atom of within a group of isotopes. Can I use isotopes and nuclides interchangeably? Do somebody know that can confirm this...

Thanks,
inpyodakid

 

[inpyodakid]

When transition metals lose electrons do they always come off of the s subshell first and then the d subshell? What is the deal with degenerate orbitals? How which periods have degenerate orbitals and from which subshell does the first electron get taken?

 

[inpyodakid]

I recently came across a book that said Na+ has an excited state electron configuration. But as I recall, an alkai metal that loses an electron also decreases in atomic radius due to the increase in the effective nuclear charge felt by the remaining electrons. As electrons get closer to the nucleus the electric potential energy will decrease thus decrease the overall energy of the atom...Does this make sense to anyone else or am I missing something here??

 

[Bacchus]

I hope my reasoning is correct here: When sodium is ionized (possibly from a photon), the energy causes the atom to place an electron (Na+) into a higher orbital. When this excitation occurs, the photon "replaces" the electron. This is a shortlived ionization and the electron will eventually fall back to the ground state. However, when the electron is in the excited state from the photon, it is in its excited state which also corresponds to a higher energy.

Now, here's my devil advocate and why I'm not 100% sure... Na+ will have the same electron configuration as Neon, the element before it on the periodic table. Neon is a noble gas which is not easily excitable.

 

[iA-MD2013]

I went ahead and merged the 4 threads because they're all asking about electronic states and orbital theory. This should, hopefully, allow everyone to respond to the 4 questions at once. Good luck! 🙂