I was reading an article (forgot the link) but it said
"The energy levels of the electron in a hydrogen atom are quantised".
What do they mean by the term quantised?
I was reading an article (forgot the link) but it said
"The energy levels of the electron in a hydrogen atom are quantised".
What do they mean by the term quantised?
What we mean by quantise is discrete. You know for example that the energy of a free particle is a continuous value of the impulse $$E = \frac{p^2}{2m}$$ The energy of the electrons in the hydrogen atom is not a continuous function of anything, instead takes on discrete values depending on an integer $n$ which we call energy level. The energy levels of the hydrogen atom are evaluated in the quantum theory and are given by $$E_n = -\frac{E_0}{n^2}$$ where $E_0 = 13.6$ eV. There's no way for an electron in the hydrogen atom to have an energy between two successive levels like $E_1$ and $E_2$.
Quantized means discrete, i.e. coming in fixed portions, called quanta (singular - quantum).
It means that electrons can only possess certain fixed energies and have no values in between those levels, no continuum of energies.