Re: Why do solids have a continuous spectrum?

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#572

From: James C Kernohan
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:47

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On Tue, 28 Feb 1995, Peter Schmurr wrote:

> Individual atoms of an element exhibit a bright line emission spectrum.
> Why is it that a solid sample of the same substance does not?
>
This continuous spectrum is created by the thermal energy of the
atoms/molecules in a substance. Because the atoms have a temperature
above absolute zero, they all have a random velocity. The higher the
temperature, the higher the average kinetic energy. But note that one can
only dicuss the average kinetic energy, there is a range of values. Since
the atoms can have almost any KE and thus vibrational frequency, they can
give off almost any (and indeed every) frequency of radiation.

jck

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From: James C Kernohan <jck@WORLD.STD.COM>
Subject: Re: Why do solids have a continuous spectrum?
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