Lesson Plan: The Quantization of Electromagnetic Radiation Physics • 9th Grade
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to calculate the energy of a photon given its frequency or wavelength.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recognize that light consists of photons,
- recognize that the energy of a photon is proportional to its frequency,
- recognize that the energy of a photon is inversely proportional to its wavelength,
- use the formula ,
- use the formula ,
- find the total energy of identical photons given the frequency or wavelength of each photon.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the idea that light can be modeled as a wave,
- terms for the basic properties of waves: frequency, period, wavelength, wave speed, and amplitude,
- how to use the formula ,
- the idea that different colors of light have different frequencies and wavelengths,
- the idea that light travels at a speed in a vacuum, with a value approximately equal to m/s,
- how to represent numbers using scientific notation.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- finding the maximum kinetic energy of electrons emitted from a material via the photoelectric effect,
- understanding that photons have momentum or calculating the momentum of a photon given its frequency or wavelength,
- understanding other particle-like behaviors of light, such as Compton scattering,
- understanding that when an atom absorbs a photon, one of the electrons in the atom moves to a higher energy level and that when an atom emits a photon, one of the electrons in the atom moves to a lower energy level.