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Started by James C Kernohan
Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:47
Re: Why do solids have a continuous spectrum?
Author: James C Kernohan
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:47
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 08:47
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1553 bytes
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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