CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Can the amplitude of the wave influence the energy of the photons. If can, how?

I know from physics, that amplitude and energy are proportional. So the bigger the amplitude, the more energy. I'm not completely sure if it relates to the energy of a photon but that could get you thinking.

I believe that amplitude is related to the intensity of the light. The energy is changed by changing the frequency. This is why the photoelectric experiment proved light does not have wave properties. They expected more intense waves (bigger amplitude) to be able to remove electrons. But when this failed, the they changed the energy by changing the frequency. So in short, amplitude is not the best way to think of energy. Energy should be thought of in terms of frequency, at least when thinking of the photoelectric experiment.

The amplitude of a wave is directly related to how high energy the wave is.

Think as if you were creating waves on a string fixed at the other end. The harder you jerk it(the more energy you put in) the higher the amplitude of the wave you created will be.

The amplitude of the wave does correlate with the amount of energy because intensity which is the brightness is the square of the amplitude. If the amplitude is high then the intensity will also be high.

The amplitude of the wave is related to the intensity of the light, but not the energy of the photon. A photon of any given wavelength will have the same energy as any other photon of the same wavelength. The light wave amplitude has more to do with the number of photons making up the light. Higher amplitude corresponds to more photons and a higher light intensity.

So if the amplitude of the light is higher, does the light become brighter?

Yes, the light will be brighter. Intensity is a measure of brightness. However, with regard to the photoelectric effect, as others have stated, a brighter light does not result in a greater number of electrons being ejected from a metal. Rather, the energy of each photon will determine a light source's ability to cause electron ejection.