Electronic Transition

[Daniela G 2C]

Does it matter from what specific atom an electronic transition occurs to calculate the frequency of the emitted photon, such as an electronic transition of a hydrogen or oxygen atom?

[Brian Diehl 2B]

Hey Daniela,

I believe any calculations associated with Bohr's electronic transitions are exclusive to the hydrogen atom. Otherwise, one would need to take into account electron-electron repulsion occurring within multi-electron atoms, which causes variances in the absorbed/emitted photon energy values when an electron switches between quantum levels.

[patienceokani]

I don’t think that we have had a problem where the transition is from two different elements, so I can’t say for sure whether the equations we use matter.

[Miranda Hess 3I]

Brian is right, the equations we were given are only for hydrogen atoms. Professor mentioned that the equation we use would be different for each element we were working with but didn't elaborate too much. Patienceokani, I don't think the question was referring to when there are two different elements but rather when there is a different element from which the atom is transitioning to a higher or lower energy level.

[Connor_Olsen_2K]

We've never seen an atomic switch like that so I doubt there will be questions pertaining to it.