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Go to ConfChem---------------------Hydrogen excitation animation Line spectrum animation Speed of light, photon energy-------------------
------Flame tests-------
The energy levels in atoms and ions are the key to the production and detection of light. Energy levels or "shells"exist for electrons in atoms and molecules. The colors of dyes and other compounds results from electron jumps between these shells or levels. The colors of fireworks result from jumps of electrons from one shell to another. Observations of light emitted by the elements is also evidence for the existence of shells, subshsells and energy levels. The kinds of light that interact with atoms indicate the energy differences between shells and energy levels in the quantum theory model of the atom. Typically the valence electrons are the ones involved in these jumps. The "quantum" theory was proposed more than 90 years ago, and has been confirmed by thousands of experiments. Science and education has failed to clearly describe the energy level concept to almost four generations of citizens. This experiment is an exercise aimed at throwing a little more light on the subject. ( Don't laugh too hard at the joke.) Atoms have two kinds of states; a ground state and an excited state. The ground state is the state in which the electrons in the atom are in their lowest energy levels possible (atoms naturally are in the ground state). This means the electrons have the lowest possible values for "n" the principal quantum number. Specific quantized amounts of energy are needed to excite an electron in an atom and produce an excited state. The animation shows the opposite of excitation. It shows how the excited hydrogen atom with an electron in the n = 3 shell can release energy. If the electron in hydrogen only drops to the n = 2 shell the energy matches a pulse of red light. Note the size of the electron cloud in the excited atom changes when the electron moves from shell to shell. The size of the atom decreases in volume when the electron goes from the n=3 shell to the n = 2 shell. On average the electrons are closer to the nucleus for lower values of "n". The electron cloud is related to the most probable distance between the nucleus and the electron. The most probable distance increases with increasing "n" value. The excited electron is still "in" the atom even in an excited state. The valence electron will only escape the atom if the electron is given an amount of energy equal to the ionization energy for that atom. (Be sure to view Animation) return to top of page
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Energy can be added to atoms many different ways. It can be in the form of light, an electric discharge or heat. This added or extra energy is emitted when the excited electrons in the atoms give off light and fall back to lower shells. The light emitted has wavelengths and colors that depend on the amount of energy originally absorbed by the atoms. Usually each individual excited atom will emit one type of light. Since we have billions and billions of atoms we get billions of excitations and emissions. return to top of page Not all atoms in a sample will absorb or be excited exactly the same. For example in hydrogen the ground state has the electron in the n= 1 shell. The electron in some hydrogen atoms may be excited into the n = 2 level. Other hydrogen atoms can have the electron excited into the n = 4 shell. Different elements emit different emission spectra when they are excited because each type of element has a unique energy shell or energy level system. Each element has a different set of emission colors because they have different energy level spacings. We will see the emission spectra or pattern of wavelengths (atomic spectra) emitted by six different elements in this lab. We will then identify an unknown element by comparing the color of the unknown with the flame color of our knowns. You need to know that white light is the combination of all colors of the spectrum.
Each color has a characteristic wavelength. The wavelength is the distance between the beginning and end of a complete cycle of the light wave. All colors of light travel at the same speed, 3.0 x 108 meters/ second. The animation shows how a prism separates photons of red light from photons of blue light. The photons of different colors fall in different positions on the color spectrum. The position is determined by the wavelength. (Be sure to view Animation)return to top of page
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Arizona State University has a nice page on Light at this URL. http://acept.la.asu.edu/PiN/rdg/readings.shtml Colorado State University physics department has an animation of the H atom at this URL http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/lines2.html Definitions of terms and properties of light are at this site return to top of page http://www.aspsky.org/html/tnl/35/atom.html The speed of light frequency and wavelength are related by the formula c=
ln
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Spectroscopy is the analysis of light spectra and the way in which light interacts with matter. When light is analyzed it is commonly separated into its component colors. The light source is directed on a slit and the "beam" of light is separated using a prism or grating. The reason that the images are lines is that the light from the lamp is focused on a narrow slit. The illustration shows the separation of a light beam into its component colors. return to top of page
This produces an image of the slit which has the shape of a line. The resulting beam of light can be broken into the color spectrum. or into its components of the spectrum emitted by the atom. You can see the specific colors emitted by the light source. A white light source will give a spectrum like the one shown above. return to top of page The emission spectrum for sodium shows only two colors in the visible color range. The two colors are yellow and have wavelengths of about 590 nm. The continuous spectrum and calibration scale is shown to give approximate wavelength values.
return to top of page A CD-ROM mirrored surface behaves like a grating or prism. If you look at the surface of the CD-ROM under a light, you can see the color spectrum. Street lights are sodium vapor lamps in many communities. These lamps have an orange yellow tint. You can see from the emission spectrum why the sodium vapor lamps would appear yellow and not white. These lamps consume less energy than the older blue colored mercury vapor lamps. Mercury vapor lamps have been sold in hardware stores for yard lighting. One of the odd things that we sometimes notice is that colored things have a different appearance in natural daylight than they do under mercury vapor or sodium vapor lamps. This is reasonable because the daylight includes all of the wavelengths of white light and the vapor lights only emit a few specific colors that can be reflected into our eye off of any illuminated article.
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c. A wave with the color red has a wavelength of 6.50 x 10-7 meters / cycle), what is the frequency of the wave? Use c
= l n solve for n and we get the following n = {c / l } n = 4.62 x 1014 cycles / second with three sf
The energy of a photon or single pulse of light energy can be calculated using the Planck energy relation E=
E = 3.05 x 10-19 joules / cycle return to top of page Note: A common household 100 watt light bulb uses 100 joules every second. Even though this energy is not converted completely into light, we can make a rough assumption that it is. If this energy is emitted as light ( really much is disipated as heat) it means 3.28 x 1020 photons (330,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons) would have to be emitted every second to transfer the 100 joules in a second. The numbers are huge. By way of comparison the population of the wor;ld is only 8,000,000,000 (eight billion). The atoms and their electrons are constantly changing energy. The electrons are going through ceaseless energy level jumps.
Metal ion
barium calcium sodium rubidium potassium lithium
return to procedure click for flame test click for flame test click for flame test click for flame test click for flame test click for flame test
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Examine the spectra for the elements Na, Ne, Hg or He and answer the following questions. FILL IN THE FOLLOWING TABLE WITH YOUR ANSWERS Element with greatest number of visible emission lines
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Longest wavelength in the spectrum of this atom in nanometers. Color of light for this longest wavelength
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return to procedure Examine the spectra for the elements Na, Ne, Hg or He and answer the following questions. FILL IN THE FOLLOWING TABLE WITH YOUR ANSWERS Element with fewest number of emission lines Longest wavelength in the spectrum of this atom in nanometers Color of light for this longest wavelength
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Why does a sodium vapor street light look yellow instead of white? What would you expect to happen to the size (volume) of a hydrogen atom when the outer electron moves from the n = 2 shell to the shell with n = 4 ? Would the volume increase?
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Revised March 31, 2005 All rights reserved. Dr. Walt Volland (Copyright 1999-2005)
Revised January 14, 2004 return to top of page Dr. Walt Volland (Copyright 1999-2002) Lab report should be submitted using an equiz
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