Question

What is indicated by the hydrogen and sodium spectrum?

Answer 1

Different elements have different absorption and emission spectrums, it can be identified by the spectrum of an element about what wavelength it emits when an electron of that atom jumps from higher level orbit to a lower level orbit.

Complete answer: There are two types of spectrum, absorption and emission spectrum, through the spectrum one can find out the difference between higher level orbit and lower level orbit of an element.
The spectrum of hydrogen indicates that there is only one electron in a hydrogen atom, and the spectrum of sodium indicates that there is more than one electron in a sodium atom.
But, that is not the only thing a spectrum indicates, through absorption or emission spectrum we can find out the wavelength it emits when it is subjected to a source of energy. For example, when you heat different gases in confined spaces, it will be observed that they show different colours, thus they emit different wavelengths.
The emission spectrum of hydrogen shows that a hydrogen atom shows around 4 to 5 different colours, meaning different wavelengths in the emission spectrum, and that of sodium shows around 2 to 3. Different answers are possible depending upon the experiment.
Each and every element has its own unique spectrum. When electrons absorb photons with different energy, they will jump to two different higher level orbits, thus they emit different wavelengths which show different coloured lines in the emission spectrum.

Note:
Absorption spectrum and emission spectrum are different, as in absorption spectrum black lines appear in the continuous spectrum, and in emission spectrum coloured lines appear in a black spectrum. But, by finding out just the absorption or emission spectrum, the other can be obtained by the first.