# How Electron Transitions and Orbital Shapes Relate to Light Emission

- Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2119851229018771955
- Source account: [@demystifysci](https://x.com/demystifysci)
- Source language: English
- Duration: 0:54
- Published: 2026-11-10
- Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission

## Transcript

[0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission) There's a crazy thing about light that they do not teach you.

[0:03](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission?t=3) The way that quantum mechanics talks about the production of atomic line spectra is that it is always the electron transition.

[0:10](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission?t=10) So the electron goes into some higher energy state, hangs out there for a little bit, then it spontaneously emits.

[0:16](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission?t=16) What they do not mention is that there's actually a physical correlate to that electron transition, which is that in general, in most cases, for light to be produced, the atom has to be excited into a shape that is different from its ground state.

[0:32](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission?t=32) So if you have your spherical toroidal hydrogen in its ground state, you can't just shove it into a larger spherical shape and then have that collapse back down and produce the, the kind of light that we're talking about.

[0:44](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/yFSuSrd4QVP9/en/how-electron-transitions-and-orbital-shapes-relate-to-light-emission?t=44) It has to go into like that donut of the P orbital or the clover of the D orbital, and then when it relaxes from those, it can produce light