Continuous Spectrum Puns

Why does matter go through discrete phases of solid → liquid → gas, rather than a continuous change going through a “buttery” or “syrup”-esque phase?

https://preview.redd.it/j5u9yh7ejsu61.png?width=1016&format=png&auto=webp&s=3da5780c4320e9859ddf0ceffd864043e6ac9601

Incandescent bulbs emit light by heating a filament using electricity, this would lead to a continuous spectrum according to Kirchoff's first law. However, the glass casing around the filament is filled with Argon (or other inert gases), its presence should make the spectrum discontinuous due to the absorption of wavelengths corresponding to Argon's emission spectrum.

I'm researching dynamic-diaphragm and condenser microphones, and all of the marketing copy says, "There are two microphone capsule diameters: small and large."

Why would there be a countable/finite number of classifications, rather than a continuous spectrum of diaphragm sizes? Is there some technological fact that forces diaphragm diameters to 'gravitate' toward the values 1.25" and 0.5"? Like, if you made a "medium-sized" mic capsule, would you get some inferior 'worst of both worlds' design? Or is the whole "two types of diaphragm sizes" thing just marketing gobbledy-guk?

If species are defined as animal groups that can reproduce with each other and have fertile offspring, why did the myriad of different animals on earth evolve into distinct species that can’t breed with each other rather than less well-defined individual species with a DNA “estuary” characterized by interbreeding between different closely related groups?

If white light has a continuous spectrum, then it has an infinite quantity of frequencies as there are an infinite quantity of numbers between any two numbers. (It shouldn't matter that light usually has discontinuities. if it has any continuous regions, this should hold true.) For example, if I have light between 508 and 508.1 THz, I have frequencies that include 508.01, 508.011, 508.0111, etc. and that is only a small subset of the actual range of frequencies.

Every single frequency should have a photon with energy equal to Plank's constant times its frequency. So, the minimum energy of a photon in the example range is 3.3660436362×10^−19 J. That times infinity is, of course, infinity.

Given that white light obviously does not have an infinite amount of energy, how can it possibly have a continuous spectrum?

I was reading a modern physics book, and it states:

"Einstein took Planck’s idea one step further and suggested that the electromagnetic radiation field itself is quantized and that “the energy of a light ray spreading out from a point source is not continuously distributed over an increasing space but consists of a finite number of energy quanta which are localized at points in space, which move without dividing, and which can only be produced and absorbed as complete units.”* We now call these energy quanta of light photons."

My questions is, If the energy of photon is given by Plank's constant divided by frequency, how is it not continuous when frequency is continuous? Couldn't photon have any energy?

i.e. do you believe there are borderline cases, or you're either autistic or you're not?

I recently had an aspie friend with a lot of experience in such things tell me he would bet good money that I was on the spectrum because of everything from my humor to how I hold myself and my manner of speaking. His comment was "it's like porn, I know it when I see it." I was talking to him online from my home, alone, and I looked down at how I was sitting and realized "holy shit, he might be right" because if I saw anyone else sitting like I was, on the floor in that very twisted/contorted position rocking back and forth slightly, I would immediately assume they were on the spectrum.

I've known I had ADHD for a long time and I've kind of attributed the classically autistic things I do to the ADHD. Literally every screening test I take puts me in the "maybe" category, like halfway between NT and autistic. There was some test where it was like <29 is likely NT, 29-34 is maybe, and >34 is probably ASD and of course I got a fucking 32.

I'm not sure whether I should approach this as trying to figure out whether I'm on the spectrum or not, or whether the answer can truly be that I'm just a borderline case. I know no one here can give me an answer about my own diagnosis, but I'm wondering how you conceptualize being on the spectrum, as a binary either/or thing, or a true continuous spectrum with allism (I said neurotypical in the post title, but there's the question of whether it's continuous with neurotypicality and/or whether it's continuous with other variations of not-NT, like ADHD)

And of course because this is the only place I can do this without it being weird, here's a visual explanation of what I mean about the possibilities:

basic possibilities and with another axis just to complicate things more

When you put prism in the path of the sunlight you get a nice spectrum spread from red to violet (and beyond the visible part). Why do we get that spectrum? Why don't we see emission lines from hydrogen or helium? Where do other wavelengths come from? How do you "take out all those photons to see say He lines (how helium was first discovered)? I think I read somewhere you can sometimes see absorption lines from atmosphere gases, but why not original source bands? How does it work that we can determine composition of other stars or even exoplanets from their light if everything we get is "white"?

Sorry for lots of questions, it just popped in my head.

Any simple and intuitive explanation is appreciated. Thanks!

Why are there no absorption lines? Shouldn't the outer layers of the gas absorb certain frequency photons and re-emit them in random directions, lowering the amount of photons with these frequencies in the direction of the viewer?

I thought that both create first blue light, and use phosphors to create some more colors out of that, which then mix up to white. But why is the spectrum of CFL just some needles, and the spectrum of LED is continuous?

So, I just started studying physics of diagnostic imaging and a sentence in my book got me confused. The sentence is "The peak high tension applied to the tube does not represent the maximum X-ray photon energy owing to relativistic effects which reduce electron velocities."

My book is in English, but I'm not a native English speaker. I'm confused about the peak high tension applied to the tube. What does that mean? What is this tension that is mentioned? Is it referring to the peak voltage? If so, why did I read that the peak voltage corresponds to the maximum photon energy?

A previous post on here reminded me of a question I had recently:

How is it that the further you go into the blue end of the spectrum it shifts to purple (indigo/violet)? I thought that purple was a mix of red and blue; does the spectrum wrap back around or am I wrong about something here?

(A) If light is quantized then how come there'd be a continuous spectrum ?

(B) If white light seperates into 7 colours, how can each of these colours of light merge with their colour ? (Ex: Violet merge with Blue)

A 1 1 1 province is very, very different from a 3 3 3 province, but have the same color. This makes the mapmode useless, because I know north India is more developed in general than Tibet. The actual differences between provinces in an area is still unclear, but that is what I need to know.
I suggest a logarithmic spectrum, because there are much more low development provinces than high ones. I think this should make it a lot clearer what development provinces are.

Why did Planck say that energy is quantized in a blackbody radiation when the radiation spectrum itself is continuous?

E=hf

If the spectrum is continuous, then frequency is continuous, thus making energy continuous.

My understanding of the Blackbody and Quantum Hypothesis is clearly wrong. But I can't seem to reconcile the notion of energy being discrete.

Would appreciate any clarification.