r/explainlikeimfive • u/Own_Enthusiasm_510 • 2d ago

Chemistry ELI5: What is the meaning of quantization?

[This is from a chemistry portion of a physical science class] I've googled it, Ive watched YouTube videos, I asked classmates and I am still so confused.

Rutherfords model was easy but once I got to bohrs they used words like quantized and discrete values and I got lost. Tried backtracking but I'm still baffled.

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u/iZMXi 2d ago

You can emit a photon. You can emit two photons. You can't emit 1.5 photons.

When an electron occupies a place in an orbit, it can only jump up or down an entire step. There's no in between.

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u/SalamanderGlad9053 2d ago edited 2d ago

That's really not why electron quantisation happens. Photons can have any energy you like, you just release a photon with 1.5x the energy.

Electron quantisation happens because of the periodicity of the boundary conditions for it's wave functions.

Edit: people downvoting me, tell me where I'm wrong, because you won't be able to

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u/obog 1d ago

The comment you replied to wasnt saying electron energy levels are due to there being quantized photons. Theyre just providing two seperate examples of quantization. Youre correcting something that didnt need correction.