PHYSICS 70 Chapter Notes - Chapter 38.3: Photon, Gas-Filled Tube, Balmer Series
3 Jan 2017
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Metal electrodes into glass tube, lowered pressure and attached electrostatic generator. The colors are called discrete spectrum - only contains discrete individual wavelengths. Gas also absorbs discrete wavelengths in addition to emitting discrete wavelengths. However, every wavelength absorbed by gas is emitted, but not every emitted wavelengths is absorbed. Therefore, the amount of wavelengths absorbed by gas is less than the amount of wavelengths emitted by gas. Balmer series: discovered with hydrogen because the emission spectrum is very predictable and regular. Balmer series predicts the spectral lines with decreasing wavelength. Vertical axis is energy, with energies acting like ladder rungs. The lowest rung is the ground state, and higher rungs correspond to quantum numbers n = 2, The atoms can only gain the amount of energy allowed by the rung , no more, no less. Analogy: can"t step between any two rungs of a ladder - you either have to go up or fall to the lower one!
