Table of contents
- 1. Chemical Measurements1h 50m
- 2. Tools of the Trade1h 17m
- 3. Experimental Error1h 52m
- 4 & 5. Statistics, Quality Assurance and Calibration Methods1h 57m
- 6. Chemical Equilibrium3h 41m
- 7. Activity and the Systematic Treatment of Equilibrium1h 0m
- 8. Monoprotic Acid-Base Equilibria1h 53m
- 9. Polyprotic Acid-Base Equilibria2h 17m
- 10. Acid-Base Titrations2h 37m
- 11. EDTA Titrations1h 34m
- 12. Advanced Topics in Equilibrium1h 16m
- 13. Fundamentals of Electrochemistry2h 19m
- 14. Electrodes and Potentiometry41m
- 15. Redox Titrations1h 14m
- 16. Electroanalytical Techniques57m
- 17. Fundamentals of Spectrophotometry50m
17. Fundamentals of Spectrophotometry
Properties of Light
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Join thousands of students who trust us to help them ace their exams!Watch the first videoMultiple Choice
A low-pressure mercury-vapor lamp has a characteristic emission line at 253 nm. Knowing that this lamp is putting out 11.8 watts of light energy, how many mercury atoms are emitted per second during operation?
A
7.86x10-19 Hg atoms/s
B
4.73x105 Hg atoms/s
C
1.50x1019 Hg atoms/s
D
1.50x1028 Hg atoms/s
E
9.27x10-18 Hg atoms/s

1
First, understand that the energy of a photon can be calculated using the equation: E = \frac{hc}{\lambda}, where E is the energy of the photon, h is Planck's constant (6.626 x 10^{-34} J·s), c is the speed of light (3.00 x 10^8 m/s), and \lambda is the wavelength of the light (253 nm or 253 x 10^{-9} m).
Convert the wavelength from nanometers to meters to ensure consistency in units. This is crucial for accurate calculations.
Calculate the energy of a single photon using the formula E = \frac{hc}{\lambda}. Substitute the values for h, c, and \lambda to find the energy in joules.
Next, determine the number of photons emitted per second by dividing the total power output of the lamp (11.8 watts, which is equivalent to 11.8 joules per second) by the energy of a single photon calculated in the previous step.
The result from the division will give you the number of photons emitted per second, which corresponds to the number of mercury atoms emitted per second, as each photon corresponds to one emission event from a mercury atom.
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