Quantised Energy Levels of the Hydrogen Atom

This section is part of the HSC Physic syllabus Module 8: From the universe to the atom, Quantum Mechanical Nature of the Atom.

Here we will investigate the line emission spectra to examine the Balmer series in hydrogen.

The Rydberg Equation is used in this section:

\frac{1}{\lambda} = R_H (\frac{1}{n^2_1} - \frac{1}{n^2_2})

Balmer Series

The Balmer series is the series of spectral emission lines of the hydrogen atom that result from electron transitions from higher levels down to the energy level with principal quantum number 2.

Quantised energy levels of the hydrogen atom

Using the Balmer series, plank’s equation and the Rydberg equations we can now relate qualitatively and quantitatively the quantised energy levels of the hydrogen atom and the law of conservation of energy to the line emission spectrum of hydrogen.