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An excited electron jumps back to its ground state in two steps. What will its emission spectrum look like?

A) one long line

B) one thick line

C) two distinct lines

D) a continuous patch

User Igor Popov
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2 Answers

5 votes

Answer:

c

Step-by-step explanation:

As the excited electron takes two jumps to return to its ground state, it emits two photons. Each photon varies in the energy it carries since the gap between the jumps is different.

User Ccleve
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5 votes

Answer:

C. two distinct lines.

Step-by-step explanation:

Emission spectral is the characteristics of energies involved. When an electron absorbs energy, it gets excited and jumps to a higher energy level that has a quantified energy value equal to that absorbed. On de-excitation, it drops back to a lower energy level or the ground state and emmit energy(ies) in the process in form of spectrum.

In the question given, the electron jumps back to its ground state in two steps. It initially drops from the excited state to a lower energy level and latter drops to its ground state. Thus, two distinct lines would be emitted.

User Arletty
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