Which condition did you change?
Labs / Chemistry
Emission Spectrum
Click any energy level to kick the hydrogen electron up to it, then watch it fall back down one jump at a time. Every drop releases a photon of a precise wavelength set by the Rydberg formula — each one paints a sharp colored line onto the spectrum strip below.
Labs / Chemistry / Emission Spectrum
Emission Spectrum
Click any energy level to kick the hydrogen electron up to it, then watch it fall back down one jump at a time. Every drop releases a photon of a precise wavelength set by the Rydberg formula — each one paints a sharp colored line onto the spectrum strip below.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Chemistry connects events too small to see with changes we can measure. This model helps you link particles, energy, and conditions to an observable result.
Explore
Try the model
drop —ΔE — eVλ — nm—
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Which jumps land in the visible rainbow, and which vanish into the ultraviolet or infrared?
- Excite to n=6 over and over. Why do the same few colored lines keep appearing instead of a smooth blur?
- The 3→2 drop glows red but 6→2 is violet. What does a bigger energy gap do to the wavelength?
- Turn off step-by-step cascade so the electron falls straight to n=1. Where do those lines land, and why can't you see them?
- Compare the spacing of the energy levels near n=1 versus near n=6 — how does that crowding shape the spectrum?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Describe what happened at the particle or energy level, then connect it to the result you saw. A strong explanation names both the cause and the evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What happened to the particles or energy?
What observation supports your explanation?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.