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Mass Ratio of the Deuteron and Proton from the Balmer Spectrum of Hydrogen: Variation on an Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Experiment
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Abstract
A common experiment in some Physical Chemistry Laboratory courses involves the analysis of the Balmer series of the hydrogen atom to derive the Rydberg constant. We describe a simple modification of this experiment, which involves a comparison of the Balmer spectrum of hydrogen and deuteron atoms to determine their nuclear mass ratio. The accuracy of the experiment relies on a sufficient amount of 1H2 being present along with 2H2 in the deuterium lamp for its use as an internal standard. In our implementation, we use a gear-driven 0.25 m scanning monochromator with a 1200 lines/mm grating. The typical precision of our measured mass ratio is better than 10 %.
Keywords (Audience):
Upper-Division UndergraduateKeywords (Domain):
Physical ChemistryKeywords (Pedagogy):
Hands-On Learning / ManipulativesKeywords (Subject):
HydrogenCiting Articles
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This article has been cited by 4 ACS Journal articles (4 most recent appear below).
Modern Developments in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Samuel A. Abrash2007 973 (), 115-151Modern Developments in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Samuel A. Abrash2007 973 (), 115-151Developments in the physical chemistry laboratory since the publication of the germinal text by Schwenz and Moore (1) are categorized and reviewed. The categories examined include modern instrumentation, current topics in chemistry, integrated ...
Do the Series in the Hydrogen Atom Spectrum Ever Overlap?
David W. BallJournal of Chemical Education2006 83 (6), 883Do the Series in the Hydrogen Atom Spectrum Ever Overlap?
David W. BallJournal of Chemical Education2006 83 (6), 883Much is made of the simplicity of the hydrogen atom spectrum. Textbooks that display line spectra of the various series show that each series is in a discrete portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, separate from each other. The question arises, do these ...
Cost-Effective Spectroscopic Instrumentation for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Gary A. Lorigan , Brian M. Patterson , Andre J. Sommer and Neil D. DanielsonJournal of Chemical Education2002 79 (10), 1264Cost-Effective Spectroscopic Instrumentation for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Gary A. Lorigan , Brian M. Patterson , Andre J. Sommer and Neil D. DanielsonJournal of Chemical Education2002 79 (10), 1264Teaching or developing experiments for an undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory course can be very challenging. Often it is difficult to develop particular experiments because the spectroscopic instrumentation is not readily available within your ...
The Balmer Spectrum of Hydrogen: An Old Experiment with a New Twist
B. R. Ramachandran and Arthur M. HalpernJournal of Chemical Education1999 76 (9), 1266The Balmer Spectrum of Hydrogen: An Old Experiment with a New Twist
B. R. Ramachandran and Arthur M. HalpernJournal of Chemical Education1999 76 (9), 1266This paper describes a novel twist to the undergraduate experiment in which students study the UV-visible emission produced from a deuterium discharge tube. In this approach, students do not have to make any assumptions about the nature of the emission ...
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- Received: August 03, 2009
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