Why Quantized Energy Levels Should be More Widely Known
by Anna Simmons ('20)

So, it turns out that most neon signs aren’t actually made from neon. This might come as a surprise to some, but to those who understand the term “quantized energy” it makes total sense. If you were walking down the street and came upon a “neon” sign that said “open” in red letters with a yellow circle around it, you would have no questions. But what if I told you that neon can only produce one color? There is a basic outline of an atom called Bohr’s Model in which there is a nucleus (the center of the atom), electron shells (the rings around the nucleus), and electrons (the spheres resting on the electron shells). Atoms have a specific number of electron shells according to the element, and in this case the neon atom has two. The distance from each shell to the nucleus is specific to the element, which is the important element here. When an electron absorbs heat energy, it can jump between shells and jump back to its starting place which gives off energy, in the form of light, from the atom. Because there are set distances from shell to nucleus in any given element, there are set amounts of energy that can be taken in or expelled from a specific atom, and that is what quantized energy levels are. The color of light that we see coming from the atoms, is a combination of all the possible colors, or quantized energy levels, emitted from that element. Now, back to this neon sign. If you were to combine all the different colors created by the quantized energy levels given off by neon, you would see a bright red color. There is no other possible option because there are no other colors neon could produce. The yellow part of the sign was probably filled with sodium vapor because sodium’s quantized energy levels combine to produce a yellow light. Quantized energy levels, among with many other things, are also used by scientists to discover what stars and galaxies are composed of. If they pass the light emitted from a star through a spectroscope, a prism that allows you to see what individual colors are coming from an element instead of one heterogeneous color, they can deduce what element or elements it is made out of. This is because quantized energy levels, what dictates the colors emitted, are different for every element. The term “quantized energy levels” may seem scary, daunting, and complex, but all you have to think of is the misnomer “neon signs”. These energy levels being emitted by electrons are all around us, and now you will be able to understand them from the signs in your neighborhood to the stars in the sky.

 Resources
Gary, S. (2010, October 06). How do astronomers use light to study stars and planets? Retrieved April 01, 2018, from http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/10/07/3012690.htm
Lurain, Alice. Lecture. [Quantized Energy Levels]. February 13, 2018. (2007, June 04).
Retrieved April 01, 2018, from http://archive.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/06/04/what_causes_neon_signs_to_emit_a_range_of_different_colors/