An atom that absorbs a certain amount of energy can then emit
A)only a photon of that energy.
B)a photon of any energy.
C)a photon of the same or higher energy.
D)a photon of the same or lower energy.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When an atom absorbs a certain amount of energy or photon, its electrons jump to a higher energy level. However, these excited electrons are not stable and tend to lose energy by falling back to their ground state. During this fall, they emit a photon with an energy equal to the energy difference between the excited and ground states. Since the energy levels in the atom are discrete and quantized, the emitted photon can only have specific energies that correspond to the energy transitions between the excited and ground states. Therefore, the photon emitted will have a lower energy than the absorbed photon, making option D (a photon of the same or lower energy) the correct choice.

An Atom That Absorbs a Certain Amount of Energy Can