Stephen Raj
- 3
- 0
Why can't energy is absorbed by protons rather than by electrons when a light ray strikes the atom.
Why Do Protons Not Absorb Light Rays?
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 2K views
guerom00
- 90
- 0
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 
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
RougeSun
- 8
- 0
Protons can absorb photons too but it's easier for an electron to absorb it because it can move around
- 16,110
- 8,352
Nuclear energy levels are measured in MeV (millions of electron volts), whereas photons of visible light have energies of only a few eV.