Moseley's law

Photographic recording of Kα and Kβ X-ray emission lines for a range of elements; note that for the dispersive element used, the line position is proportional to the wavelength (not energy)

Moseley's law is an empirical law concerning the characteristic X-rays emitted by atoms. The law had been discovered and published by the English physicist Henry Moseley in 1913–1914.[1][2] Until Moseley's work, "atomic number" was merely an element's place in the periodic table and was not known to be associated with any measurable physical quantity.[3] In brief, the law states that the square root of the frequency of the emitted X-ray is approximately proportional to the atomic number:

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mose1913 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mose1914 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ e.g. Mehra, J.; Rechenberg, H. (1982). The historical development of quantum theory. Vol. 1, Part 1. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 193–196. ISBN 3-540-90642-8.