User:Boleszek/Notebook/Physics 307l, Junior Lab, Boleszek/2008/09/22
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The Balmer SeriesThe Balmer series is a set of electromagnetic waves emitted by a given atom when its electron returns back to the n=2 energy level after being initial excited away from it to a higher level. On the way "back down" a single electron may occupy a few energy levels (from 7 to 4 back to 2, for example) so the excitation of a single electron may result in multiple emissions of different energies. Due to the individual electrical natures of each atom, the Balmer series is noticeably different for each one. Though it is uncommon, it is possible for an electron to skip certain energy levels during excitations if it is more energetically favorable for it to occupy a different energy level (these possibilities are determined by what are referred to as "quantization rules").SJK 02:40, 4 October 2008 (EDT)First developed through trial and error attempts to match data by Balmer in 1885, the Balmer Formula (shown much further below) can also be arrived to by applying the Bohr formula for atomic energy states to a difference (n1-n2) in energy states. The constant of proportionality (Rydberg constant) that relates the change in energy state to the wavelength of emitted light tends to slowly increase as the atomic mass of each atom increases. The GoalSJK 02:55, 4 October 2008 (EDT)It is our aim to successfully calibrate a constant deviation spectrometer with known values of the mercury spectrum and proceed to measure the spectra of hydrogen and deuterium. We will use these values to determine the Rydberg constant. Then we will use the same apparatus aimed at a sodium lamp in order to attempt to resolve the two characteristic closely spaced lines of its spectrum. ProcedureThe procedure can be found in Dr. Gould's manual CalibrationBefore calibration begins we notice that the prism looks a little dusty and has white impurity on its backside. We are afraid that cleaning it might result in a change in its surface optical properties so we try to calibrate with the prism as is (If we can not isolate a spectral line adequately we will try to clean it).
MeasurementsFor the first 3 sets of Hydrogen spectrum measurements (for each element) we recalibrate the spectrometer to a different color so as to minimize the systematic error of our vernier scale accuracy. The rest of the measurements are performed one after another with the same calibration. For all of these measurements we determine that, due to the physical limitations of the vernier scale, we can not be sure of their certainty to within +/-1nm. To minimize variations, all readings are taken after moving the dial in the clockwise direction. Clockwise was chosen as it is pushing against the spring. Darrell had previous experience with this type of instrument and knew that moving into the spring would provide more consistent measurements.
-Accepted Values of Hydrogen Spectra
-Measured Values of Hydrogen Spectra 1st Run (calibrated to violet1)
2nd Run (calibrated to violet2)
3rd Run (calibrated to green/blue): For this run Darrell narrowed the slit to obtain higher resolution lines.
4th Run (calibrated to Red)
Now we'll get some data with the same calibration to compare our repeatability in reading 5th Run (Repeat of calibrated to Red)
6th Run (Repeat of calibrated to Red)
Keeping the final calibration used for hydrogen as it produced decent results compared to known spectra and decent repeatability 1st Run
2nd Run
3rd Run
4th Run
5th Run
We are instructed by the manual to see if we can successfully measure the two closely spaced yellow lines (586.0 & 586.6) characteristic of the sodium spectrum. Unfortunately we were unable to find a sodium lamp so we decided to find another element whose spectrum contains two closely spaced lines. After searching for spectra on the internet we saw that Krypton has fairly closely spaced lines so we decided to use this gas for our measurement of the resolution. Within the purple region of the spectrum we found quite a few closely spaced lines. So we looked for 2 that were as close together as we could resolve. These lines were at 445.4nm and 445nm, indicating that we have a resolution well within 1nm. Repeating this procedure in the orange part of the spectrum we found two lines that were equally closely spaced together as the two purple lines, however they were at 605nm and 607nm, indicating to us that the resolution of our spectrometer at longer wavelengths was lower. We thought to look for this difference in resolution because the change in the scale of the vernier dial indicated that it would have a sensitivity that changed across the range of measurements. This also fits well with our understanding of the dispersion of light that the instrument depends on. The angle of diffraction, as a function of wavelength, does not follow a straight line but is curved, so we expected that the visual distance between two lines would not be directly proportional to the wavelength difference. (see dispersion of light) Data AnalysisThe wavelength (λ) data taken above will now fulfill its purpose by being applied to the Balmer Formula: λ^-1=R(1/4-1/n) Where n is an energy level >2 and R is the constant to be determined.
Using MATLAB, along with Darrell's expertise in coding, we calculated possible values of R for a variety of quantum numbers n for each frequency. Comparing plots of these values graphed on a single axis, we located the points at which each graph yielded a value of R that was consistent with the others. We found that each higher energy (lower wavelength) line corresponded to the next higher quantum number (n=3,4,5..) such that no energy level was "skipped" during the excitation process of the gas. The plot of the data along with the code that produced it are below. matlab code SJK 03:02, 4 October 2008 (EDT) I chose to try some old school data analysis along with the computerized modern version to see how they compare. For the Hydrogen spectrum data I used Matlab, but for the Deuterium data I chose to do calculations by hand. Here are the results:R_H=1.093*10^7 R_D=1.097088*10^7 Since these two atoms are so similar in structure they really should have very similar Rydberg constants. My results show that the Deuterium calculation yields a value closer to the accepted value. This is probably not because I am better at doing accurate calculations than Matlab, but most likely because all of our Deuterium data was taken using one calibration, whereas the Hydrogen data used for the Matlab calculation was recalibrated for each run. In the name of consistency I decided to calculate the Rydberg constant of Hydrogen using the data (runs4-5) that was taken for one single calibration which, importantly, was the same calibration used for the Deuterium data acquisition. After summing the values for each type of line, dividing each sum by the number of runs (3), calculating the Rydberg constant for each averaged wavelength using consecutively increasing values of n for lines of higher and higher energy (n=3-6), and finally averaging the 4 Rydberg constants, I obtained: R_H=1.097014*10^7 This result is actually intriguing to me because it expresses a behavior that is expected. In my quantum physics textbook the author explains that atoms of greater mass should have slightly greater Rydberg constants and according to my calculations R_D is indeed about one ten-thousandth larger than R_H. But the excitement is short lived, for I have yet to calculate the experimental error, and if it does not fall within the accuracy of one ten-thousandth, then I cannot fully trust my results to be more than "good luck" error.SJK 03:00, 4 October 2008 (EDT)
Error AnalysisWe have three sets of data here to error analyze:
The first H data will be done with Matlab (using the std function) and the rest will be done by hand. SJK 03:07, 4 October 2008 (EDT)Before presenting the results it is fitting that I prove I know, at least to some degree, what I intend to be doing. I admit that I was not to clear on how to calculate the standard deviation of a discrete set of data points at the beginning of this lab, but then I went to Wikipedia. At first I was taken aback by the large variation in definitions of std, but after careful sifting, I believe I found the correct std for my purposes in the form of a nice list. Here are the Wiki-instructions:
This calculation is described by the following formula:
I will follow these instructions for the hand-made calculations and compare the results with Matlab's std function.
Violet1--.9452nm Violet2--1.0308nm Green/Blue--1.6763nm Red--sqrt(2)nm≈5.51nm
Violet1--0nm (this excellent result is rely due to the fact that we calibrated to this gas) Violet2--0nm Green/Blue--0nm Red--sqrt(2)nm≈1.41421nm
Violet1--Here's proof that I'm actually doing this: mean-- 410+410+410+410.5+410.6=2051.1 2051.1/5=410.22 deviation-- .22,.22,.22,.28,.38 squares of deviations-- .0484,.0484,.0484,.0784,.1444 variance-- 3*.0484 + .0784 + .1444 = .368 .368/5=.0736 standard deviation-- sqrt(.0736)≈.27129nm Violet2--.402nm Green/Blue--.08nm Red--.94 SJK 03:10, 4 October 2008 (EDT)The standard deviations for the runs with constant calibration are noticeably lower than the runs for which we kept on recalibrating the spectrometer. One may wonder why we even bothered to recalibrate the apparatus for each of the first 3 Hydrogen runs. Our reasoning was that we might get values that were overall closer to the accepted ones if we kept recalibrating. In our minds it seemed that we were going to get high accuracy but low repeatability with this technique. But it turned out that there was much too much room for human error in this experiment and so both our accuracy and precision increased after we let the apparatus measure with a calibration we felt we close enough. I did mention that I was going to compare my calculations with those of Matlab, but since I used Matlab for a set of data with altogether different error characteristics than the other two sets of data this comparison would be superfluous. SJK 03:14, 4 October 2008 (EDT)The range (about .01-5) of our standard deviations indicate to us that we can only be sure of the accuracy of the Rydberg constants determined above to within one-hundredth of a nm. The seemingly correct difference of one ten-thousandth of a nm in Rydberg constants calculated for H and D above cannot be confirmed with utmost certainty, but neither can it be proven to have no physical significance. An apparatus with higher precision would have to be used to resolve this problem. |