Why does electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet region represent a larger energy transition than does radiation in the infrared region?

Question

Piper Hoffman · Accepted Answer

I would say for the frequency dependence of the emitted photon during the transition.

During a transition between allowed orbits an electron emits the extra energy in form of a photon of energy: #E=hf# where: #h# is a constant (Planck's Constant; #f# is the frequency. You can imagine this photon as a packet of energy bigger or smaller depending on the frequency: The higher the frequency the larger the energy. UV radiation has higher frequency than infrared so its energy (carried by the correspondent photon) is higher. A transition that involves a large amount of emitted energy will result in a high frequency photon. I hope this makes sense!

Piper Hoffman · Answer

undefined Electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet region represents a larger energy transition than infrared radiation because ultraviolet photons have higher energy compared to infrared photons. The energy of electromagnetic radiation is directly proportional to its frequency, and ultraviolet radiation has a higher frequency than infrared radiation.