Chapter 5, Problem 46AP

For the Li atom, the energy difference between the ground state and the first excited state, in which the outermost electron is in a 2p orbital, is $\text{2}.\text{96}\times \text{1}{0}^{-\text{19}}\text{J}$ . In the ${\text{Li}}^{\text{2}+}$ ion, the energy difference between the 2s and 2p levels is less than 0.00002 of this value. Explain this observation.