PPT Slide

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• If atoms can emit only fixed amounts of energy, it follows that  atoms can have only fixed electronic energy values: E = 1h_, 2h_, ...

• This constraint means that the energy of an atom is not continuous  but quantized: it can exist only in certain fixed amounts.

• Each change in energy results from a “packet” of energy being  gained or lost by the atom. This energy packet is called a quantum.

• Thus, an atom changes its energy state by emitting or absorbing a  quantum of energy.

• The smallest possible energy change for an atom is from one  energy state to an adjacent one (_n = 1):

Concept 7-3. The quantization of energy and the fact that an atom changes its energy by emitting or absorbing quanta of radiation

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