Question

2. Offer a possible explanation for the fact that the hydrogen spectrum shows four lines in the visible region, helium shows eight, sodium shows two and neon shows sixteen. 3. Could hydrogen and/or helium atoms be producing other types of electromagnetic radiation (light)? Yes or No. Explain your answer in relation to energy levels.

Answer 1

2. In the electromagnetic spectrum hydrogen shows four lines, helium shows eight lines, sodium shows two lines and neon shows sixteen lines. The lines in the electromagnetic spectrum corresponds to each electron relaxaton from an orbital shell. So hydrogen has available four shells to which excitation of single electron occurs and the relaxation therefore emits radiation of specfic wavelength which are seen as lines in the electromagentic spectrum. These shell count goes up as we move from Hydrogen to helium to neon and therefore we see more number of lines in the electromagnetic spectrum. In sodium we have entered a new orbital shell having far less nmber of shells and therefore only two lines are observed here in the electromagnetic spectrum.

3. Hydrogen and helium are producing different types of electromagnetic radiations as the wavelength of the emitted light varies from low UV to visible as so on. We observed different colors for each atom in the electromagnetic spectrum. These colors are directly correlated to the type of radiation emitted from each atom. So hydrogen and helium gives differen color.