I know that the energy of an EM wave is equal to nhv, where n is the number of photons, but why/how do the number of photons in a wave vary? If a single atom emits an EM wave with an energy of 100 units, will that EM wave from a single atom always have a single photon resulting in the wave frequency being 100 units (assuming h=1 to make the math simple) or is it possible for that wave to have 2 photons and a frequency of 50 units and so on for different frequencies? If it's the first case where a single atom only emits a single photon at a time, does that mean a wave with multiple photons is generated from the superposition of emissions from many atoms? If it's the second case where a single atom can emit any number of photons at a time, is this number of photons emitted just a random process or can the number of photons be predicted somehow?
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