- #1
Kidphysics
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From what I understand, if a photon hits let's say an atom of Hydrogen its single electron will jump to a higher energy state until it releases it's own photon and returns to a lower state. My question is that what if a high energy gamma ray hits the Hydrogen atom? The electron will fly a long distance away from the atom ionizing it, but the photoelectric effect shows that there is some limit to what an electron can absorb as far as radiation is concerned. So my question is that indeed if a high energy gamma ray hits a Hydrogen atom, some of it will be absorbed by the electron ionizing it, but what about the rest of the energy, does it just zap the nucleus?