Hi,
Can someone give context regarding increases and decreases in electron level? I'm having a hard time understanding the emission/line/atomic spectra (the graph that was shown in class that had the Balmer and Lyman series with the lines on it?
Context?
Moderators: Chem_Mod, Chem_Admin
-
- Posts: 66
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:23 am
Re: Context?
Hello,
So imagine the hydrogen atom, which has a nucleus and then one electron floating around the nucleus. This electron can be at many different energy levels depending on the state of the hydrogen atom/how "excited" the electron is. It may be close to the nucleus or far.
If an electron moves from a high energy state to a lower one (far away from the nucleus to close to it), then it has to get rid of that excess energy. It does this by giving off a photon. Depending on how much excess energy the electron has to get rid of, it will emit photons of different energy levels, aka it will emit different wavelengths of light.
Each line in the atomic spectra shows a wavelength of light. This means each line shows the different energy levels that the hydrogen electron can jump between.
Hopefully this helps, it's a tricky concept.
So imagine the hydrogen atom, which has a nucleus and then one electron floating around the nucleus. This electron can be at many different energy levels depending on the state of the hydrogen atom/how "excited" the electron is. It may be close to the nucleus or far.
If an electron moves from a high energy state to a lower one (far away from the nucleus to close to it), then it has to get rid of that excess energy. It does this by giving off a photon. Depending on how much excess energy the electron has to get rid of, it will emit photons of different energy levels, aka it will emit different wavelengths of light.
Each line in the atomic spectra shows a wavelength of light. This means each line shows the different energy levels that the hydrogen electron can jump between.
Hopefully this helps, it's a tricky concept.
-
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:16 am
Re: Context?
Electrons can move to higher energy levels when they are "excited" by absorbing extra energy. When electrons move down from their excited state to a ground state, they release this extra energy in the form of a photon.
Re: Context?
Hello! Hopefully the visual attached helps! The diagram with the Balmer and Lyman series can be seen as the Line Absorption Spectrum we drew in class- just tilted sideways. The lines on the horizontal spectrum represent frequency in the system.
Looking at the Lyman series, a long "fall" for the electron in the spectrum above correlates to a very high frequency in the horizontal spectrum below. It works this way in all three series.. from left to right on each one, we see that the frequency increases and the lines that represent each frequency get closer together. This proximity corresponds with the distance of energy levels in the above image. The largest gap was between n=1 and n=2, but from there out, the gap gets smaller and smaller between n's as we head up the scale. So the frequency gap begins to increase at very small increments. (This is because there is technically more distance for the electron to fall as we move up the energy levels.) However, we are only increasing the height of the fall by minuscule amounts as we head up the energy levels (n). The frequency lines on the horizontal spectrum represent the same phenomenon.Vice versa, from right to left, we see the frequency gets lower because there is now less of a fall from, let's say, n=2 to the ground state.
Sorry that explanation went in circles and was a bit overkill! But this is definitely not easy to explain! Hope I helped somehow.. I found my information and picture from this link: https://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/prope ... ctrum.html
Looking at the Lyman series, a long "fall" for the electron in the spectrum above correlates to a very high frequency in the horizontal spectrum below. It works this way in all three series.. from left to right on each one, we see that the frequency increases and the lines that represent each frequency get closer together. This proximity corresponds with the distance of energy levels in the above image. The largest gap was between n=1 and n=2, but from there out, the gap gets smaller and smaller between n's as we head up the scale. So the frequency gap begins to increase at very small increments. (This is because there is technically more distance for the electron to fall as we move up the energy levels.) However, we are only increasing the height of the fall by minuscule amounts as we head up the energy levels (n). The frequency lines on the horizontal spectrum represent the same phenomenon.Vice versa, from right to left, we see the frequency gets lower because there is now less of a fall from, let's say, n=2 to the ground state.
Sorry that explanation went in circles and was a bit overkill! But this is definitely not easy to explain! Hope I helped somehow.. I found my information and picture from this link: https://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/prope ... ctrum.html
Return to “Properties of Electrons”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests