Prev. Article Next Article Table of Contents

Article

The Balmer Spectrum of Hydrogen: An Old Experiment with a New Twist

Your current credentials do not allow retrieval of the full text.

Purchase the full-text

PDF/HTML,
figures/images,
references and tables,
(where available)

B. R. Ramachandran and Arthur M. Halpern

Indiana State University, Department of Chemistry, Terre Haute, IN 47809

J. Chem. Educ., 1999, 76 (9), p 1266

DOI: 10.1021/ed076p1266

Publication Date (Web): September 1, 1999

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

This 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 lines in order to analyze the spectrum; they first perform a three-parameter nonlinear regression and discover that the emission belongs to the Balmer series and that the 656 nm line is the a line. Subsequently they perform a one-parameter nonlinear regression to obtain the value of the Rydberg constant.

Keywords (Audience):

Upper-Division Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Laboratory Instruction

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives

Keywords (Subject):

Atomic Properties / Structure

View: Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links

Citing Articles

Citation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by Linking service. For a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder.

This article has been cited by 4 ACS Journal articles (4 most recent appear below).

Modern Developments in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Samuel A. Abrash
2007 973 (), 115-151
- Modern Developments in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
  Samuel A. Abrash
  2007 973 (), 115-151
  Developments 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 ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links
Do the Series in the Hydrogen Atom Spectrum Ever Overlap?
David W. Ball
Journal of Chemical Education2006 83 (6), 883
- Do the Series in the Hydrogen Atom Spectrum Ever Overlap?
  David W. Ball
  Journal of Chemical Education2006 83 (6), 883
  Much 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 ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links
The Physics Teacher: Sliders, Staircases, and Seduction
Roy W. Clark
Journal of Chemical Education2005 82 (2), 200
- The Physics Teacher: Sliders, Staircases, and Seduction
  Roy W. Clark
  Journal of Chemical Education2005 82 (2), 200
  Featured articles concern sliders in spreadsheets, a Bohr staircase with realistic steps and a golf ball, and The Physics Teacher's editorial opinion of the Dr. Fox effect.
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links
Cost-Effective Spectroscopic Instrumentation for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Gary A. Lorigan , Brian M. Patterson , Andre J. Sommer and Neil D. Danielson
Journal of Chemical Education2002 79 (10), 1264
- Cost-Effective Spectroscopic Instrumentation for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory
  Gary A. Lorigan , Brian M. Patterson , Andre J. Sommer and Neil D. Danielson
  Journal of Chemical Education2002 79 (10), 1264
  Teaching 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 ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links