Do electrons behave differently in the sunlight and darkness?
Photons (or sunlight) have energy and momentum. When electrons are exposed to sunlight, the energy and momentum is transferred to the electrons. This causes the electrons to move to higher orbit around the atom or fly out of the atom. Electrons absorb energy at certain frequencies. One example of the impact of sunlight (photons) on electrons is the sunburn on your skin. The electrons in your skin absorb sunlight, and fly out of your skin’s atoms. This causes chemical reaction in your skin that causes sunburn. Note that sunlight contains ultraviolet light which is high frequency light, and hence high energy light. We will not get sunburn if sunlight did not contain this high energy light. Photon’s energy is E = hv, where h is Planck’s constant, v is the frequency. The higher the frequency of the photon, the higher its energy. Photons also have momentum p = E/c, where c = speed of light.
