Atomic Spectra [ENDORSED]

[annikaying]

Why is the line spectrum grouped in specific parts? I know it has to do with the specific releases of energy but how exactly to the two correlate?

[Claire Lo 3C]

It is grouped by the type of electromagnetic radiation or wavelength/frequency that is shone on the material. Thus it is grouped as UV, infrared, and visible and since they have different energies, the electrons will return to different shells.

[haileyramsey-1c]

The lines within a series share the same quantum number for the lower energy level (where the electrons return to after being excited). Since they share this it creates the groupings which then can be identified based on the quantum number where UV is Lyman series, visible is Balmer series and so on.

[Shivam Rana 1D]

Just adding to the previous responses, as mentioned in lecture because energy is quantized you need a specific wavelength of light for an electron to jump from one level to a higher energy level. Atomic emission spectra have bands that are isolated in specific regions; like how the Lyman series is in the UV region of the EM spectrum. The emission (or absorbtion) spectrum gets bunched together near a point in the region because as you progress towards infinity for n2, the difference in the amount of energy to go from n1 to increasing numbers of n2 becomes smaller and smaller.