A student in a physics laboratory observes a hydrogen spectrum with a diffraction grating for the purpose of measuring the wavelengths of the emitted radiation. In the spectrum, she observes a yellow line and finds itswavelength to be 589 nm. (a) Assuming this is part of the Balmer series, determine , the principal quantum number of the initial state. (b) What is unreasonable about this result? (c) Which assumptions are unreasonable or inconsistent?
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A student in a physics laboratory observes a hydrogen spectrum with a diffraction grating for the purpose of measuring the wavelengths of the emitted
wavelength to be 589 nm.
(a) Assuming this is part of the Balmer series, determine , the principal quantum number of the initial state.
(b) What is unreasonable about this result?
(c) Which assumptions are unreasonable or inconsistent?
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