In a spectroscope...?

Question

I don't really understand. Why are their certain lines that show up darker at certain numbers?

Answer 1

Per quantum theory, electrons cannot orbit an atomic nucleus anywhere they please; there are certain discrete orbits they must occupy. This means to move from one orbit to another, an electron must absorb or emit a specific quantity of energy first. (The "quantum" in quantum theory comes from the same root as the word "quantity.")

When an electron absorbs a photon, it moves from its lowest orbit (i.e. ground state) to a higher orbit. They call this an excited state. When it's done being excited, it has to emit a photon of the same energy it absorbed to return to its ground state. Now since it can only move in specific orbits, it can only absorb or emit photons of a specific energy level, i.e. a specific wavelength or color.

Since each element has a unique number of orbits available, determined by the number of protons in its nucleus, each element has its own spectral signature, its own set of unique wavelengths or colors it will absorb when excited or emit when it cools.

The diffraction grating in your spectroscope splits white light into its component colors. This reveals the various wavelengths of light the source actually comprises.

The black lines you see are called absorption spectrum:as the white light passes through a diffuse gas, the atoms of that gas absorb the wavelengths particular to their spectral signature. So those wavelengths are missing from the final image and that reveals the chemical make-up of of the intervening gas. Astronomers have used this method to determine the chemical makeup of the Sun and planets.

Answer 2

It's a phenomenon with a directly predictable signature.

The lines are the signature and represents atoms or moleclues of certain element and where the line occur is the signature of a specific atom or element.

As for why, the Quantumists are speculating it's due to photomic absorption and release due to electron exchange rates, but that is pure speculation with some good theoritical eveidence behind it, nonetheless science could change its mind on the subject next year or in 100 years.

That's why I call it a phenomomen.

Spectography actually works, therefore the lines we see do represent elements and atoms.

As to how it works, it's only a theory.

In audio work we selectively can reduce or remove entire frequecy bands from the audio signal using what are called notch filters and these area can be controlled in width and they resemble what we see in the spectrum of light, which is also a series of visual frequencies and we know there are filtration process for removing large blocks of color.

So basically atoms and molecules "notch out" certain areas of the color spectrum in a predictable manner.

So there are essentially holes cut into the spectrum or actully slits or lines of varied width.

It's almost as if the atom or element is generating a precise beat frequency that obliterates that wavelength of light or serves as a physical filter.

I no of no proof that Photons are wave specific

To intimate that absportion of a photon would cause a small band to vanish would indicate that photon is wave specfic.

This, however, the accepted Quantumist explaination.

It has a hard time existing in the real world

Of course the photon is also theortical.

It was created to fit the model.

Light has both wave (frequency) and particle properties

The wave (frequency) part is where we would tend to think these noticings occur. That those small frequency areas are missing or absorbed (filtered out)

This makes one wonder how, exactly, the photon works. It is wave depdentent (clustered) or is it a data transmitter carrying a deficent (partial) spectrum.

I would tend to think it's the latter as that would explain a change in speed during refraction.

One can conclude that the photon is a data carrying particle, a lattice, a matrix carryng something akin to a DNA strand with missing elements.

Getting back to audio we have two spectral methods known as ALL FREQUENCY NOISE or WHITE NOISE which is HISS from a radio tuned between stations and PINK NOISE which is tuned to specific frequency of sounds.

For photons to be absorbed they would have to be PINK in nature to cause a gap in the spectrum.

Photons, rationality dictates, must be WHITE by nature.

They be all spectrum.

To generate lines would be to notch out specific pink areas in side the white noise, leaving a difecient white noise source.

To rationalize this we'd have to think of the photon as some data carrying, some very complex data carrying particle.

Like a computer byte NOT a bit.

It would have to be a very complext byte. A very long word to hold that much data.

All it would taken, then is a countering frequency to null out given wave frequencies.

But this not the accepted theory.

String theory has the potential to explain it, if we get back to the Aether concept using strings as the medium of the universe in which case a certain amount of minimal strings are present everywhere in space and larger clusters are what constitute atoms, particles, moledles and everything thing has a resonance frequency.

Strings are said to vibrate.

An atom or element has a complex and spefic frequency generation of it's string cluster.

This would cause a particle of light (photon) to exicite the noninal strings to the visible light spectrum and allow for noaticing in that spectrum by atominc vibrations that act as BEAT frequency.

This is used in the electro magnetic spectrum already for radio transmissions in which a BEAT frequency is what your TV and radio tuner to to extract a specific carrier wave that is sending you a data stream of other waves.

Man does this on purpose, who is to say nature doesn't also work this way (or maybe it's part God's plan for the universe).

The sheer fact exists that man uses a beat to bring you channel 4 on your TV set instead of channel 2. Because their carrier waves are tuned different. Tuned to different beats.

Maybe nature does this with elements.

They are tuned to different beats and the results of that nullification end up in black lines or gaps in the spectrum.

While I'm not giving you exact modern accepted theory on Photomic Quantum Mechanics (totally theortical), I am usuing existing analoges to demonstrate a variety of methods that might produce gaps in data stream or spectrum.

I don't think the current quantum view will stand up in 500 years.

I think they'll devise another explaination for the spectral lines.

Right now the quantum view is the one they like.

Answer 3

Spectral lines can either be darker or brighter than surrounding wavelengths. This is because the electrons in atoms and molecules can only have certain energy states and not others. When the electron jumps from one state to another, it releases (or absorbs) photons at certain energies. The excess (or deficit) of photons at those energies makes the line. It's quantum mechanics.

Answer 4

It is the way different atoms and molecules effect light. The details are rather advanced college level physics called quantum mechanics. It has to do with the electrons in the atoms only being able to exist in a few very specific energy states and the different energy photons of light associated with those states are different colors.