Hi. It’s Mr. Andersen and this is AP Physics essentials video 86. It is on emission and
absorption spectra. If we were to take a gas, like hydrogen, and put it in a discharge chamber
and shoot electrons at it, it is going to give off light that looks like this. If we
were to analyze that light, if we were to split it in a prism, it would look like this.
So instead of being a rainbow of light we are going to get these discrete units of light
or these discrete protons that are carrying discrete amounts of energy. And this was puzzling
to scientists for a long time. We could also shine light through that discharge chamber
and parts of it would be absorbed. And so this would be the absorption spectra. So most
of the light would make it through but some of it is not going to make it through. And
this puzzled scientists for a long time until Niels Bohr finally figured it out. And what
is happening, if we look at a hydrogen just in the first two energy levels, is that as
the electron goes around the atom, as it jumps to a lower energy level, it is going to give
off a photon of light. And for it to move up to that other energy or that higher energy
level it is going to have to absorb a photon. And so there are discrete colors of light
that are required for it to jump up. And as it jumps down it is going to release these
discrete colors of light as well. If you hit it with other colors it is not going to do
anything. It does not have the right amount of energy. And so this is conservation of
energy. Conservation of energy in an atom or in a nuclei, when it absorbs a photon,
so we call that absorption. And so what does that mean? The amount of energy in the photon
and the atom or nuclei before absorption is equal to the amount of energy inside the atom
or nuclei after absorption. And same thing applies to emission. And so as we give off
that photon energy is conserved. The amount of energy we had in the atom or the nuclei
before is equal to both the photon and the atom or nuclei after. Now this is really valuable
in science because we could look at what is being given off, so we can look at the spectra
of emissions from any kind of an element or molecule, and it tells us what elements are
going to be found inside it, if we know what those energy levels are. And so if you know
anything about visible light, it is all the colors of the spectrum. So as we shine it
in a prism, as it moves through the glass different wavelengths of light are going to
travel at different speeds and so it is going to split it into the spectrum. Now know this,
on the red side there is a part of the spectrum that we cannot see. That is infrared light.
And there is going to be UV light on the other side. And we are just seeing that visible
spectrum that is going to be right in the middle. And so if we look at those energy
level diagrams, for example in a hydrogen atom, if we were to hit it with the right
color of photons, so let’s shine on it the right color photon, let’s say a red photon,
watch what happens when it hits that electron, it jumps to a higher energy level. Now let’s
say it falls down to a lower energy level, what kind of color is going to be given off
from that electron? It is going to be that red photon again. But what happens if we hit
it with a green photon for example, and it does not have the right color? It does not
have the right energy? It is never going to be able to move. Let’s say we hit it with
a yellow photon. What does it do? Again nothing. And so these atoms are being bombarded by
different colors of photons but it has to be the right color. Let’s say it is the
right purple color, what is going to happen? It is going to jump to a higher energy level.
What happens as it falls down to that ground state? It is going to give off that same exact
photon. So you can model this. This is a PHET simulation. What I am going to do is take
one hydrogen atom, put it in a discharge chamber. I am going to use a cathode ray to hit it
with an electron. And watch what happens. It gets high energy and as it falls back down
it gives off a certain color of photon. Now if I were to hit it with not just one electron,
but a continuous stream of electrons, before it is able to fall down again it is giving
off different colors of photons. So we are getting all of these different colors of photons
and you can see on the spectrum on the bottom of this page it is kind of plotting what color
those photons are. So now let’s do multiple atoms. Let’s do a bunch of atoms. We are
going to hit those with a continuous stream. And so what is happening is they are all at
different energy levels and so if we were to plot the average of all of those photons
that are being given off that is going to be that purple color we get. But if you were
to do a spectrogram on it you could see on the bottom that we are getting those bars.
Now way to the right we have the infrared. Way to the left is the UV. But you can see
those four spectral bars that I just talked about a second ago. Now let’s say it is
not hydrogen in the middle. So this is going to be a hydrogen spectrum here. I have sped
up the simulation. So we are getting those bars. But let’s say we change it to mercury.
What are we going to get? Totally different electron. Totally different energy levels.
And so we are going to get different color. This is what sodium would look like. This
is what neon would look like. And so when you look at a neon light and it gives that
reddish color it is the sum of all those different photons that are being given off from that
neon gas. And so did you learn to describe emission, again that is what is given off,
and absorption spectra? And associate that with electron or nuclear transitions?
I hope so. And I hope that was helpful.