Question

Prediction: Given that our eyes can detect photons with wavelength 400-700nm, predict one hydrogen electronic transition that you expect to be able to see in your spectrometer readouts. (hint: Do you expect to see the level 2 -> 1 transition? What about the level 2 -> 3 transition? An easy way to confirm that you can’t see all transitions is to realize that the 1 -> 4 transition is nearly 13.6eV, which corresponds to a wavelength of 1240/13.6 = 91nm. That is way too small a wavelength (too large photon energy) for us to see as a color.)

Answer 1