Solution to 1986 Problem 32


Answer (D) is correct. The photoelectric equation is derived under the assumption that each photon carries an energy equal to Planck's constant times the photon's frequency, and that when the photon hits the metal, it is destroyed and all of its energy energy is transferred to an electron. The photon can also be scattered elastically from an electron, but that effect has another name: the Compton effect.


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