Multiple choice general knowledge science & technology

An excited atom decays to its ground state and emits a photon of green light. If instead, the atoms decays to an intermediate state, then the light emitted could be:

  1. Violet

  2. White

  3. Blue

  4. Red

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The energy difference between excited and ground states corresponds to green light. Decay to an intermediate state means a smaller energy gap, which produces a lower-energy photon with longer wavelength. Red has longer wavelength than green in the visible spectrum.