Physics307L:People/Knockel/Notebook/071024: Difference between revisions
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==Calculating Rydberg constant for helium and deuterium== | ==Calculating Rydberg constant for helium and deuterium== | ||
==Error and conclusions== | |||
Revision as of 12:27, 28 October 2007
Balmer Series
(This lab SHOULD be called "Emission Spectra")
Experimentalists: Me, Nik, and a basket of pixies
Goal
We want to see if we can measure the wavelengths of the emission spectra (EM radiation produced from electron transitions) of hydrogen, deuterium, and sodium gases. We also want to calculate Rydberg's constant for hydrogen and deuterium.
Equipment
- Something to send current through samples to excite the electrons
- Mercury, hydrogen, deuterium, and sodium samples
- Constant-deviation spectrometer
Setup
We plugged in the current source, and calibrated the spectrometer using mercury. We knew the wavelengths mercury produces, so we simply had to make sure the spectrometer was measuring the wavelengths at what we knew them to be.
Procedure
For both helium and deuterium, we put current through the samples and used the spectroscope to measure the strongest wavelengths produced. We also studied the two barely resolvable wavelengths of Na (Sodium), which are at 589.0 nm and 589.6 nm, to see if our spectroscope could resolve them.
