Chapter 2, Problem 2.6P

Hydrogen atom emission spectra measured from the solar corona indicated that the 4sorbital was $\text{1}0\text{2823}.\text{853}0{\text{211 cm}}^{-\text{1}}$ , and 3s orbital $\text{97492}.\text{2217}0{\text{1 cm}}^{-\text{1}}$ , respectively, above the isground state. (These energies have tiny uncertainties, and can be treated as exact numbers forthe sake of this problem.) Calculate the difference in energy (J) between these levels on thebasis of these data, and compare this difference to that obtained by the Balmer equation in Section 2.1.2. How well does the Balmer equation work for hydrogen? (Data from Y.Raichenko. A. E. Kramida, J. Reader, and NIST ASD Team (2011). NIST Atomic SpectraDatabase (ver. 4.1.0), [Online]. Available: http:// physics.nist.gov/asd [2012, January 18].National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.)