Answer:
When an electron is hit by a photon of light, it absorbs the quanta of energy the photon was carrying and moves to a higher energy state. One way of thinking about this higher energy state is to imagine that the electron is now moving faster, (it has just been "hit" by a rapidly moving photon)
A photon is a quantum of EM radiation. Its energy is given by E = hf and is related to the frequency f and wavelength λ of the radiation by. E=hf=hcλ(energy of a photon) E = h f = h c λ (energy of a photon) , where E is the energy of a single photon and c is the speed of light.