Melchoir asked in the "tired Light" forum:
quote:
What is the actual mechanism that allows the atomic nucleus to pick up and convert photons into kinetic energy?
How does this fit in with the mechanism used to explain light spectra, i.e., atoms can only absorb photons of a particular frequency and the rest are transmitted? Can any frequency be absorbed, but only frequencies that cause a jump in a quantum energy level are stable?
If this is accurate, how do the energy jumps which don't cause a quantum jump lose some of their energy to the kinetic energy of the atom?