What would we expect? We are kicking electrons out of the metal. They didn’t just fall out, so they must be bound. Model binding by a spring, which we have to break to get the electron out. The electric field of the light wiggles the electron, pumping in energy until we break the spring. Expect:
What would we expect? We are kicking electrons out of the metal. They didn’t just fall out, so they must be bound. Model binding by a spring, which we have to break to get the electron out. The electric field of the light wiggles the electron, pumping in energy until we break the spring. Expect:
there is a threshold in light intensity to get electrons and the kinetic energy goes up with light intensity
any wavelength will do, low frequencies more effective
it takes a long time (seconds to hours) to free the electrons