CHEM 130 Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Document Summary
One of the ways energy travels through space. All exhibit the same type of wavelike behavior and travel at the speed of light in a vacuum. The distance between two consecutive peaks or troughs in a wave. The number of waves (cycles) per second that pass a given point in a space. Energy can be gained or lost only in whole-number multiples of the quantity h. H is planck"s constant is the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation is absorbed or emitted. Energy is quantized and can occur only in discrete units of size h. Each of these small packets of energy is called quantum. Electromagnetic radiation can be viewed as a stream of particles . The phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from the surfaces of a metal when light strikes it. Studies in which the frequency of the light is varied show that no electrons are emitted by a given metal bellow a specific threshold frequency.
