How did the Franck-Hertz experiment support atomic models?
The Franck-Hertz experiment demonstrated that electrons can only transfer specific, discrete amounts of energy to atoms. When an electron collides with an atom, it can excite that atom only if its kinetic energy precisely matches the difference between two allowed energy levels of the atom. If the electron's energy is not an exact match, it passes through with minimal energy loss. We observed specific excitation potentials, marked by the emission of characteristic spectral lines from the mercury vapor. This directly refuted the idea of continuous energy absorption and validated the concept of quantized energy states, a cornerstone of atomic physics.
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