In the Photoelectric effect, Why does increasing the light intensity have no effect on the energy of the electron emitted?

The equation to calculate the energy of an emitted electron is: E = hf - φ, where E is the energy of the electron emitted, is the Planck's constant, f is the frequency of the light and φ is the work function of the metal which is the minimum energy required to emit an electron. Here you can see that nothing is dependant on light intensity because the intensity is essentially the number of photons and does not increase nor decrease the energy of a single photon, therefore has no effect on the energy of an electron emitted. 

If the light has enough energy to emit a photon i.e. has a high enough frequency, then the light intensity will increase the probability of an electron being emitted from the metal.  

PK

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

People A and B are taking a lift of mass 500 kg which has constant acceleration and the force from the rope that pulls it is 7500 N. The scales where the people stand show a reading of 720 N and 500 N.


How do you use a Variable Resistor to determine values to show the relationship between I and V?


A projectile is fired at an angle of 30 degrees from the horizontal, it reaches a maximum height of 12m above the ground before coming to rest 600m from its initial starting point at the same level. What is the initial speed of the projectile?


A stationary unstable neutral particle decays into 2 separate particles with equal mass and velocity, what might the resulting bubble chamber diagram look like?