You can imagine Rydbergs excitement, just after he had identified his formula and found that it worked

Question:

You can imagine Rydberg’s excitement, just after he had identified his formula and found that it worked for all the known lines in the spectrum of atomic hydrogen. Calculate the wavelength of the radiation emitted by a hydrogen atom for n₁ = 2 and n₂ = 3. Identify the spectral line in Fig. 1A.10b.

ANTICIPATE Because n₁ = 2 the wavelength should match one of the lines in the Balmer series.

PLAN The frequency is given by Eq. 2. Convert frequency into wavelength by using Eq. 1. wavelength X X frequency = speed of light C (1) ={}} 2 y = n = 1,2, ..., Mg = n + 1, n + 2,... (2)