Question Error Report

Thank you for reporting, we will resolve it shortly

Back to Question

Q. In the spectrum of hydrogen atom, the ratio of the longest wavelength in Lyman series to the longest wavelength in the Balmer series is

NTA AbhyasNTA Abhyas 2022

Solution:

When an atom comes down from some higher energy level to the first energy level then emitted lines form of Lyman series.
$\frac{1}{\lambda_{L}}=R \frac{1}{1^{2}}-\frac{1}{n^{2}}$
where $R$ is Rydberg's constant.
When an atom comes from higher energy level to the second level, then Balmer series are obtained.
$\frac{1}{\lambda_{B}}=R \frac{1}{2^{2}}-\frac{1}{n^{2}}$
For maximum wavelength
$n=2, \frac{1}{\lambda_{L}}=R 1-\frac{1}{(2)^{2}}=R 1-\frac{1}{4}=\frac{3 R}{4} \ldots .(i)$
$n=3, \frac{1}{\lambda_{B}}=R \frac{1}{(2)^{2}}-\frac{1}{(3)^{2}}=R \frac{5}{36}\ldots .(ii)$
Dividing Eq. (ii) by Eq. (i), we get
$\frac{\lambda_{L}}{\lambda_{B}}=\frac{5}{27}$