Question

A glass tube is filled with hydrogen gas.  An electric current is passed through the tube, and the tube begins to glow a pinkish/purple color (this is how fluorescent bulbs and neon signs produce light). If you were to pass this pink light through a prism to separate the individual light frequencies, you would see that this pink light is composed of four distinct colors: violet, green, blue, and red.  Notice the similarity between image (b) above and image (b) from question #3.

Which is the best description of why this occurs?

Answer 1

The first description is the correct one.

Answer 2

The electrons within the hydrogen atoms have gained energy from the current causing them to jump to higher orbitals. When they fall back to a lower energy orbital they release a single photon. These photons have discrete energies equal to the difference in energy of the two orbitals

Step-by-step explanation:

The phenomenon described here is the photo electric effect.

When electricity is passed through the hydrogen gas an electron absorbs the energy of one photon and gains energy more than the work function of the hydrogen. Work function is the electron binding energy of a material. The above process causes the emission of an electron which is known as a photoelectron (photon).