Physics307L:People/Gleicher/Balmer
SJK 15:48, 15 October 2007 (CDT)
It is great that you linked to the lab manual...and for sure there is no need to copy everything over. However, some explanation of what you are doing is needed. The summary should be written so that some other reader who doesn't know anything about the lab can know generally what and why you're doing.
The experiment performed is detailed on this page [1] under Balmer Series.
The data I obtained is on this page Physics307L:People/Gleicher/Notebook/071001. There is error in the data due to backlash in the gears and subjectivity in the measurement.
Mercury
My Measurements
Violet: 436 nm, 435 nm, 434.6 nm
Green: 545 nm, 544.6 nm, 544 nm
Yellow: 577.1 nm, 576.1 nm, 570 nm
Using my data, I calculated the "true" value of the the lines of Mercury.
True Values
Violet - 435.2 nm +/- 0.1nm
Green - 544.5 nm +/- 0.048nm
Yellow - 574.4 nm +/- 2.842nm
Red - not visible
Next, I measured the wavelength of the lines for hydrogen and calculated the true value and my error.
Hydrogen Spectra
My Measurements
Red: 656.1 nm, 656.8 nm, 657 nm
blue: 485.6 nm, 487 nm, 486.1 nm
violet I: 433.6 nm, 431.8 nm, 434 nm
violet II: 409.9 nm, 411.2 nm, 410.5 nm
SJK 15:50, 15 October 2007 (CDT)
I don't think "true values" is a good label. I think what you are reporting is the mean and standard error of the mean of your measurements, which is your best estimate of the "true value." Other than the label, though, it is excellent that you report uncertainty for all the values!
True Values
Red - 656.6 +/- 0.04298052 nm
Blue - 486.2333333 +/- 0.096866545 nm
Violet I - 433.1333333 +/- 0.264298123 nm
Violet II - 410.5333333 +/- 0.081470538 nm
Deuterium Spectra
My Measurements
Red: 655 nm, 656.1 nm, 657 nm
blue: 485 nm, 484.8 nm, 486 nm
violet I : 433.2 nm, 433.8 nm, 434.5 nm
violet II: 409.5 nm, 410.2 nm, 413 nm
True Values
Red - 656.0333333 +/- 0.19309159 nm
blue - 485.2666667 +/- 0.079546037 nm
violet I - 433.8333333 +/- 0.081470538 nm
violet II - 410.9 +/- 0.660103808 nm
Rydberg constant
Given Value: R = 1.0967758 × 107 m−1
My values for the Rydberg constant are as follows:
10972282.65 1/m SJK 15:53, 15 October 2007 (CDT)
Where is your estimate of the uncertainty in R???? You were so careful about reporting uncertainty for the individual measurements, and it is just as important (maybe more so) for the final value.
Here is my excel sheet:
