Question

Which of the following statements is false?

• The energy of electromagnetic radiation increases as its frequency increases.
• An excited atom can return to its ground state by absorbing electromagnetic radiation.
• An electron in the n = 4 state in the hydrogen atom can go to the n = 2 state by emitting electromagnetic radiation at the appropriate frequency.
• The frequency and the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation are inversely proportional to each other.

Answer 1

The statement 'An excited atom can return to its ground state by absorbing electromagnetic radiation' is false, as the process actually involves emitting radiation. Electromagnetic radiation's energy increases with frequency, and frequency and wavelength have an inverse relationship.

Step-by-step explanation:

The false statement among the ones provided is: An excited atom can return to its ground state by absorbing electromagnetic radiation. An excited atom returns to its ground state by emitting radiation, not absorbing it. When it comes to electromagnetic radiation, increasing frequency indeed results in increasing energy. This is because the energy of electromagnetic radiation is directly proportional to its frequency. Additionally, when an electron in the n = 4 state in the hydrogen atom transitions to the n = 2 state, it emits radiation at an appropriate frequency. Lastly, the frequency and the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation are inversely proportional, meaning as one increases, the other decreases.

Answer 2

An excited atom can return to its ground state by absorbing electromagnetic radiation is false about the electromagnetic radiation.

Option B

Explanation:

In the scope of modern quantum theory, the term Electromagnetic radiation is identified as the movement of photons through space. Almost all the sources of energy that we utilize today such as coal, oil, etc are a product of electromagnetic radiation which was absorbed from the sun millions of years ago.

Various properties of electromagnetic radiations are a directly proportional relationship between the energy and the frequency, Inverse proportionality between frequency and the wavelength, etc. Hence, we can conclude that an "excited atom" can never return to its ground state by assimilating electromagnetic radiation and the 2nd statement is false.