An electron actually CAN absorb a photon of the wrong energy, if only briefly. It jumps into a virtual excited state and then drops back down to its original state, emitting a photon of the same color as the absorbed one, but in a random direction.
An electron actually CAN absorb a photon of the wrong energy, if only briefly. It jumps into a virtual excited state and then drops back down to its original state, emitting a photon of the same color as the absorbed one, but in a random direction.