Student handout: Hydrogen emission

Contemporary Challenges 2021
In this activity students work out energy level transitions in hydrogen that lead to visible light.
Here is an expression for the energy levels of an electron in a particular situation (an electron bound to a single proton): \begin{align} E_n &= \frac{-13.6\text{ eV}}{n^2} & n&=1,2,3,\cdots \end{align}
  1. Sketch the energy level diagram
  2. Find at least one allowed transition which produces a photon with a visible color
Note:
\begin{align} \lambda &= \frac{2\pi\hbar c}{E_{\text{photon}}}\\ &= \frac{1240\text{ eV}\cdot\text{nm}}{E_{\text{photon}}} \end{align}
Visible light spectrum
Keywords
hydrogen atom photon energy
Learning Outcomes