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In the discharge tube, as the density of atoms increases, the intensity of the spectral lines

Asked in GUJCET 2017 · Line spectra and their sources

Answer: (2) Increases continuously

Step-by-step solution

Idea: each spectral line is made of photons given out by atoms making one particular transition.

The intensity of a line depends on how many such photons leave the tube per second, that is, on how many atoms make that transition per second.

Raising the density of atoms puts more atoms in the path of the discharge, so more of them are excited and fall back every second.

So the intensity of the spectral lines increases as the density of atoms increases.

Why the other options are wrong

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