Question

What are absorption lines in a continuous spectrum?

Options

• Dark lines at frequencies absorbed by atoms of a rarefied gas

• Lines that only appear in heated metal filaments

• Bright lines produced by electron transitions to lower states

• Continuous colored bands without gaps

Answer 1

Absorption spectrum shows dark lines against a continuous (bright) background. These dark lines appear at specific frequencies where atoms in a rarefied gas absorb photons from the continuous source, removing those frequencies from the transmitted light.