User:David K. O'Hara/Notebook/physics 307 lab/balmer conclusion

Objective
The object of this experiment was to calculate the Rydberg Constant using the measured wavelengths of the Balmer series of spectral lines.

Results
All data and calculations are viewable in my lab notebook,[] The Rydberg constant that i calculated for hydrogen from my data was 1.0965283e7 m-1 +/-4300 The Rydberg constant that i calculated using my dueterium data was 1.0976325e7 m-1 +/-4500 With the accepted value for that constant as Rh=1.097272 x 107m-1 [|Ryderg constant wiki page] Both values for the constant calculated off my measurements are within .001% of the accepted value which is remarkable considering the nostalgic equipment, but it just makes the original work done by Balmer that much more impressive.

Conclusion
The objective of this experiment was to calculate the rydberg constant by measuring the Hydrogen spectal lines using a specrometer and using the measured wavelengths to find the rydberg constant by plugging the measured wavelength into an equation based on which energy transition was being observed. There were several sources of systemic error in this experiment, including:

1. Slippage of the gears on the measuring device. The way this spectrometer measures the wavelengths requires rotating the prism table to center the spectral line on crosshairs of the eyepiece. The mechanism for this rotation had what the manual called slippage (what I would call slop) that would allow the measurement gauge to move without moving the prism table. 2. The way you held your head when taking measurements could induce parallax which could have a fairly large impact on where the line appeared in relation to the crosshairs. 3. Also the measuring gauge was not very well divided. Particularly when trying to read the measurement for the higher wavelengths the gauge simple did not have the precision on its scale to engender a high confidence level.

Which, considering some of these issues, I was very happy with the value I calculated for the constant.