I'm getting pretty confused about light and color and making the distinction between reflected light and emitted (?) light. There are two questions in the TPR Workbook, Gen Chem section:
1) A blue transition metal complex absorbs photons of what color?
The correct answer is orange. So this complex is blue because it is maximally absorbing the wavelength of the complementary color, orange, right?
2) Sodium-vapor street lights are bright yellow. This means the majority of photons being emitted by the lamps are:
The correct answer is yellow. So compounds that emit photons of a certain wavelength will be that color?
When I'm doing these problems, should I make the distinction between absorption vs. emission? And is fluorescence, when electrons absorb a certain amount of energy and are excited to a higher state, then fall back to a lower state and in the process emit a photon, then related to the concept of emission? So fluorescent compounds are the color of the photon they emit?
Thank you!!
1) A blue transition metal complex absorbs photons of what color?
The correct answer is orange. So this complex is blue because it is maximally absorbing the wavelength of the complementary color, orange, right?
2) Sodium-vapor street lights are bright yellow. This means the majority of photons being emitted by the lamps are:
The correct answer is yellow. So compounds that emit photons of a certain wavelength will be that color?
When I'm doing these problems, should I make the distinction between absorption vs. emission? And is fluorescence, when electrons absorb a certain amount of energy and are excited to a higher state, then fall back to a lower state and in the process emit a photon, then related to the concept of emission? So fluorescent compounds are the color of the photon they emit?
Thank you!!
