1. Mar 29, 2010 #1

   Stephen Raj

   

   Why can't energy is absorbed by protons rather than by electrons when a light ray strikes the atom.

    

   Stephen Raj, Mar 29, 2010
2. 
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3. Mar 29, 2010 #2

   guerom00

   

   Hi,
   
   Light is absorbed when there is an excited state to go to.
   You can picture a proton as the ground state of the (uud) 3-quarks system. The first excited state of this system (if it exists at all… I don't know…) is very high in energy and unreachable by photons with “reasonnable” energies

    

   guerom00, Mar 29, 2010
4. Mar 30, 2010 #3

   RougeSun

   

   Protons can absorb photons too but it's easier for an electron to absorb it because it can move around

    

   RougeSun, Mar 30, 2010
5. Mar 30, 2010 #4

   jtbell

   

   Staff: Mentor

   Nuclear energy levels are measured in MeV (millions of electron volts), whereas photons of visible light have energies of only a few eV.

    

   jtbell, Mar 30, 2010

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