- #1
scienceteacher
- 8
- 0
Hello everybody. I apologize if this question is a little trivial compared to a lot of the threads posted, but I am an 8th grade science physical science teacher and am a little confused about some of the material.
From what I understand, if an atom absorbs a photon of energy E, then an electron will jump to a higher energy level. The change in potential energy that results from the EM field will be equal to the energy of the absorbed photon. All this I got from my understanding of spectral lines. Where I am confused is that I know the photon also has momemntum which must be conserved. If the photon transfers is momentum to the atom, the atom must have some Kinetic energy, which on a larger scal will translate to an increase in thermal energy. This seems to violate energy conservation. I know I must be missing something...what is it??
Thanks for the help Y'all!
From what I understand, if an atom absorbs a photon of energy E, then an electron will jump to a higher energy level. The change in potential energy that results from the EM field will be equal to the energy of the absorbed photon. All this I got from my understanding of spectral lines. Where I am confused is that I know the photon also has momemntum which must be conserved. If the photon transfers is momentum to the atom, the atom must have some Kinetic energy, which on a larger scal will translate to an increase in thermal energy. This seems to violate energy conservation. I know I must be missing something...what is it??
Thanks for the help Y'all!