Thursday, September 29, 2011

Light

Frequency is how often a wave passes the reference point in a set time in a period. Wavelength is how far apart a wave is from another wave. Amplitude is the distance from the midline to the trough or peak. If a wave has a high frequency, it has a small wavelength. If a wave has a lower frequency, it is going to have a longer wavelength. The electromagnetic spectrum includes: radio waves, microwaves, infared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays. That list is in order from longest wavelength to smallest. Visible light regions include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. That list is in order of increasing frequency; red being the lowest and violet being the highest.
Quantum is the minimum amount of energy that can be lost or gained by an atom.
Eq=hf
In the equation above, the h = plank's constant; Eq = energy of the quantum; f = frequency.
This equation applies directly to the photoelectric effect. The photoelectric effect is an observation of light that is shone to a metal piece, however, the electrons in the metal piece will not be excited unless it is blue light. Red light is too low of a frequency to excite the electrons within the metal piece. Quanta of light energy are called photons.
If you know the wavelength, you can know the energy and if you know the energy, you can know the frequency.
In my chemistry class, we took many pictures of the different spectrums for different elements.

HELIUM: As you can see, this element is mostly reflecting; green, violet, orange/goldish.



HYDROGEN: As you can see, this element is mostly reflecting; violet, blue, red and green.




MURCURY: As you can see, this element is mostly reflecting; green, violet, indigo, and small portions of yellow.


NEON: As you can see, this element is reflecting mostly; red, orange, and yellow.

ORANGE WATER PLACED IN FRONT OF COMPLETE SPECTRUM: When we did this, it reflected mainly red, orange and yellow, however some other colors like green and blue as well.

BLUE WATER IN FRONT OF COMPLETE SPECTRUM: When we did this, it seemed to include all the colors in the spectrum except for mainly red  and orange colors of low frequency.


COMPLETE SPECTRUM


When and electron is at ground state, is the electron is very close to the nucleus and has a low frequency. Also, when the electron goes from the high energy level to the lower energy level, this is how light is produced. 

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