Part 1: Light, Energy, and the Hydrogen Atom

• a. Which has the greater wavelength, blue light or red light?

• b. How do the frequencies of blue light and red light compare?

• c. How does the energy of blue light compare with that of red light?

• d. Does blue light have a greater speed than red light?

• e. How does the energy of three photons from a blue light source compare with the energy of one photon of blue light from the same source? How does the energy of two photons corresponding to a wavelength of 451 nm (blue light) compare with the energy of three photons corresponding to a wavelength of 704 nm (red light)?

• f. A hydrogen atom with an electron in its ground state interacts with a photon of light with a wavelength of 1.22 × 10-6m. Could the electron make a transition from the ground state to a higher energy level? If it does make a transition, indicate which one. If no transition can occur, explain.

• g. If you have one mole of hydrogen atoms with their electrons in the n = 1 level, what is the minimum number of photons you would need to interact with these atoms in order to have all of their electrons promoted to the n = 3 level? What wavelength of light would you need to perform this experiment?

Part 2: Investigating Energy Levels

Consider the hypothetical atom X that has one electron like the H atom but has different energy levels. The energies of an electron in an X atom are described by the equation E = - (RH / n3) where RHis the same as for hydrogen (2.179 ×10-18J). Answer the following questions, without calculating energy values.

• a. How would the ground-state energy levels of X and H compare?

• b. Would the energy of an electron in the n = 2 level of H be higher or lower than that of an electron in the n = 2 level of X? Explain your answer.

• c. How do the spacings of the energy levels of X and H compare?

• d. Which would involve the emission of a higher frequency of light, the transition of an electron in an H atom from the n = 5 to the n = 3 level or a similar transition in an X atom?

• e. Which atom, X or H, would require more energy to completely remove its electron?

• f. A photon corresponding to a particular frequency of blue light produces a transition from the n = 2 to the n = 5 level of a hydrogen atom. Could this photon produce the same transition (n = 2 to n = 5) in an atom of X? Explain.

Part 3: Periodic Properties I

A hypothetical element, X, has the following ionization energy values:

First ionization energy: 900 kJ/mol
Second ionization energy: 1750 kJ/mol
Third ionization energy: 14,900 kJ/mol
Fourth ionization energy: 21,000 kJ/mol
Another element, Y, has the following ionization energy values:
First ionization energy: 1200 kJ/mol
Second ionization energy: 2500 kJ/mol
Third ionization energy: 19,900 kJ/mol
Fourth ionization energy: 26,000 kJ/mol

• a. To what family of the periodic table would element X be most likely to belong? Explain?

• b. What charge would you expect element X to have when it forms an ion?

• c. If you were to place elements X and Y into the periodic table, would element Y be in the same period as element X? If not in the same period, where might they be relative to each other in the periodic table?

• d. Would an atom of Y be smaller or larger than an atom of X? Explain your reasoning.

Part 4: Periodic Properties II

Consider two hypothetical elements, W and Z. Element W has an electron affinity of -150 kJ/mol, and element Z has an electron affinity of -38 kJ/mol.

• a. If you have a W- ion and a Z- ion, from which ion would it require more energy to remove an electron? Explain your answer.

• b. If elements W and Z are in the same period of the periodic table, which atom would you expect to have the greater atomic radius? Why?

• c. Assuming that the elements are in the same period, which element would you expect to have the smaller first ionization energy?

• d. Do the valence electrons in element Z feel a greater effective nuclear charge than those in element W? Explain how you arrived at your answer.