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What determines the wavelength of light that can be absorbed by a pigment?

Answer 1

It is the energy levels available to the electrons in the molecules of the pigment.

If an electronic transition, or "jump," between two energy levels is present and its energy difference exactly matches the frequency of the incident light, then light is absorbed and cannot be reflected into our eyes.

The frequency, f is related to the energy of the photon, E by Planck’s equation, #E_2 - E_1 =h.f# so very specific ‘colours’ are absorbed from the spectrum and those that cannot be absorbed are either reflected (visible to us) or transmitted.

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Answer 2

Nova Adams

The molecular structure of a pigment and the energy levels of its electrons determine the wavelength of light that the pigment can absorb; that is, the pigment's absorbable light wavelength is determined by the energy difference between its ground state and excited state.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.