Question about Hydrogen Spectrum (diagram with the lines)

well, i'll try to explain it in the simplest ways

light behaves as both a wave and particles. particles of light are called photons. light also has different wavelengths an frequencies - giving different colours. Atoms can absorb these photons. So when an atom (in this case, hydrogen) absorbs these photons of light (energy), its electrons get excited. this means they jump up to another energy level (or sub-shell) and when the go back down to their normal level - they emit that energy back out (as photons) - giving off the coloured light they absorbed

this gives you the absorption spectrum (black lines on coloured back ground) and the emission spectrum (coloured lines on black back ground) the lines are on the same place because the energy levels are the same

omg
this is so well explained
so the different lines represent the colours? - like shown in the picture attached
at uni

well the emission spectrum is meant to be coloured lines on a black background (remember black = absorbs) so if those lines were coloured and in the visible light spectrum yeah

Thank you!
And so what's different between the balmer (visible light), paschen (IR), lyman (UV)


I understand that for balmer, electrons fall down to 2, and for lyman, electrons fall down to 1
But why?





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It's not a why question!

Relaxation down to n=1 happens in the UV region of the spectrum while relaxation down to n=2 happens in the visible region.

The why is because the energy released relaxing to n=1 is much greater than the energy released relaxing down to n=2,

and E = hc/λ

If atoms absorbs the photons of light, they produce a Balmer series

So if atoms absorb UV light, they produce the lyman series???



Posted from TSR Mobile

No, the different series refer to the emission spectrum.

Electrons that have absorbed energy (and it could be from electricity or heat) relaxing down to lower levels and releasing quanta of energy.

Lyman: n=n --> n=1
Balmer: n=n --> n=2
Paschen: n=n --> n=3
Pfund: n=n --> n=4

There are more, but you get the idea.

Ohh so relaxing down to lower levels each time
Like it'll go from a n=6 to a n=3 which would be paschen, then n=2, which would be balmer etc..


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