We are familiar with the concept that there are only 92 natural elements and these atoms have specific fixed properties, though they can combine in a multitude of ways to form molecules and larger, complex structures. Every aspect of nature on the smallest scale is similarly "quantized" or restricted to specific values. Electrons have only a specific charge and a spectific mass. Like planets in orbit about the sun-like nucleus, the electrons are restricted to very specific orbits, corresponding to specific energy levels.

That nature has such digitally specific values placed on properties at the smallest scale led scientists to seek out an analogy in the bigger world we occupy to understand this "quantization" phenomenon. Look to the vibration of a guitar string or the pitches arising from an organ pipe to find the clue.

If you look in great detail at the solar spectrum, you see numerous dark bands, representing the absorption of specific wavelengths by atoms that intervene between its hot surface and the Earth's atmosphers.

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