how can a hydrogen atom create so many spectral lines?

Answer 1

Because it has a lot of unoccupied orbitals to which the electron can get excited. When it comes back to the lowest energy orbital (1s) it emits energy equal to the difference between the excited and ground states creating a rich spectrum of transitions.

Answer 2

You could have asked 'why are the spectral lines discreet rather than continuous?' Both questions lead to the same answer. The energies of an electron in a hydrogen atom are proportional to 1/n^2, n being an integer. When an electron jumps from one energy level to another it will absorb or emit a photon (particle of light). The absorption doesn't contribute to the spectrum, but only the emissions.
Try forming 1/m^2 - 1/n^2, for all integer m and n less than or equal to seven and you will see that you have many possibilities. I chose seven, but there is no limit on m and n except as imposed by collision with other atoms and particles which dislodge the electron from the atom which becomes more probable at higher energy levels. There are other factors which create more lines close to the ones mentioned above and which cause the width of the lines and fuzziness, as relativity, rotation motion, oscillatory motion of the atom, etc. Some energy transitions are more likely than others. An electron jumping from energy level two to one is more likely than from seven to five. Since the electrons typically change energy levels many times per second, the ones that occur more often are more intense (brighter) than those that are less likely. For more information look up the Bohr theory of the Hydrogen atom.

Answer 3

The electron of a hydrogen atom at rest exists at its rest orbital. If a photon of a certain energy 'hits' the atom, it will knock the electron into a higher orbital (temporarily). The electron will want to be at rest, so it will lose the extra energy and go back down to its rest orbital, releasing a photon of specific energy (one of those many spectral lines).

The electron can be excited to many different higher orbitals when higher and higher energy photons push it into one of those higher orbitals. As the electron moves from higher orbitals back to the rest orbital, it must pass through the orbitals in-between to get to the rest orbital. As it passes through different middle-state orbitals it releases photons of the spectral lines.

If the electron is at some arbitrarily high energy orbital, it doesn't necessarily have to make its way through every orbital in between to get back to the rest orbital -- it can skip over some, thus releasing a photon of another spectral line.

If there are (for example) 10 orbitals that a hydrogen electron can occupy, then there are 2^10 possible ways it can get back to rest. That's 1024 possible spectral lines. It's possible that some of them might, by coincidence, have the same energy difference, so there may appear to be fewer spectral lines, but it's still a lot of lines.

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Answer 4

The spectral lines represent the wavelengths of light given off when an electron changes energy levels. When an electron becomes excited (gains energy) it will raise to a higher energy level. This is much like a satellite in an orbit, the higher the obit, the more energy. When the electron drops back to a lower energy level it will omit the energy lost as a photon (think packet of light). The photons energy is a function of its wavelength/frequency (energy=(planks constant h)*(frequency)). Each spectral line represents the difference between two levels. Since there are many different levels an electron can jump to, there are many spectral lines that can be observed.

Answer 5

hi! unfortunately i cant understand english well but if youmean why H cant make spectral lines(circule lines;yes?)the reason is because of its capacity i mean H needs one electron to reach to helium(He)so doesn have so desire to get involved in chemistry happenings but carbon has 4 electrons and can get 4 more to reach to (gazhaye najib)i mean(He;Ne;Ar;Kr;Xe;Rn).i hope this help you.but i am really sorry because i am just a highschool student in iran and cant speak english well. good luck with your exams!