What happens when a hydrogen atom loses a quantum of energy?
When an atom looses energy a photon (particle of light) is produced with energy equivalent to the energy lost by the atom. In this way we still hold conservation of energy. The fact that energy is quantised means that only certain electron orbits can exist. This is because it is the orbit of the electron which generally holds an atoms energy (at least in this case), so an electron can only stay in quantised orbits. Quantised orbits solved blackbody radiation and provide an insight into chemistry. A solution to the black body radiation problem is the most significant outcome of applying quantum mechanics to the atom. Without it an atom would continously emit energy as the electron spirals towards the nucleus. THis is because classically an accelerating charge in a field, like an electron, must give of energy. In a quantum system the energy cannot be given off except in quanta. The way i view it is more like the electron occupies a probability bubble and is not really moving or accelerat
