Spectral Lines At the end of 19th century, physicists knew there were electrons inside atoms, and that the wiggling of these electrons gave off light and other electromagnetic radiation. But there was still a curious mystery to solve. Physicists would heat up different elements until they glowed, and then direct the light through a prism...
I've done that with sunlight. You see the whole rainbow because the prism breaks the light into all of its separate colors.
That's what you get with light from the sun. But when scientists looked at the light coming off of just one element, hydrogen for instance, they didn't see the whole rainbow. Instead they just got bright lines of certain colors. (Actually, "color" isn't the right term, because only some of the lines were visible, but for now we'll just talk about visible light.)
That would mean that the atoms were only emitting waves of certain frequencies. Do all atoms create the same colors?
No. Each type of atom gives off a unique set of colors. The colored lines (or | |
|
