Light And Atoms Flashcards
What type of wave is light?
Electromagnetic
Light is composed of what?
Oscillating electric and magnetic fields
Which way do fields oscillate?
Perpendicular to each other and to the direction of travel
How is light produced
Accelerating charges
How does light behave
Like a wave in some instances and a particle in others
Like a wave in some instances and a particle in others
Particle-wave duality
Longest waves, mostly used for communication
Radio waves
Next longest wavelengths, normally used to heat food
Microwaves
Type of radiation felt as heat, not small enough to see
Infrared
Our eyes have evolved to detect this for of electromagnetic radiation
Visible light
Shorter wavelengths than visible light and now energetic enough to burn skin
Ultraviolet light
More energetic yet and can now travel through and damage most of our body, so we wear lead coverings to protect us
X-rays
Have the shortest wavelengths, and most energetic,produced during large astronomical explosions
Gamma rays
As an object’s temperature increases…
It radiates energy more strongly at shorter wavelengths
Wavelengths most strongly radiated are…
Inversely proportional to its temperature
Wein’s law
/=2.90*10^6/T
Each element has a unique set of — at which electrons can exist
Energy levels
Difference between energy levels
The energies an atom absorb when electrons jump up an energy level or emit when electrons drop down a level
The wavelength of light emitted by the jumps is determined using
Planck’s Law
Planck’s Law
E=hf h=6.63*10^-34
Each element has a unique set of — that emits and absorbs that can be used to identify it
Wavelengths
The technique used to capture and analyze a spectrum
Spectroscopy
All wavelengths are emitted with smooth transitions between wavelengths, produced when a substance has a high density
Continuous Spectrum
Light is emitted at only a few particular wavelengths, produced by substances with a low density
Emission Spectrum
Nearly all wavelengths of light are emitted but light is either missing or dimmer at particular wavelengths, the few particular missing or dimmer wavelengths are absorbed by substances the light travels through
Absorption Spectrum
The missing or dim lines
Fraunhofer lines
