- #1
leroyjenkens
- 616
- 49
Homework Statement
A hydrogen atom is in 2p state, how many different energy levels are there if a magnetic field of 0.10 T is applied to it, and what are their energies? Make sure spin is included.
Homework Equations
U = -gmsμzB
g is the Lande-g factor, which is about -2 for electrons
ms is spin, which is +/- 1/2
μz is -μbm, which is the Bohr magneton times mass.
Bohr magneton is equal to about 5.78x10-5
The mass is, I assume, the mass of the electron, which is about 9.109x10-31
And the initial energy of the ground state is E0 is -13.6/n^2
n is 2.
The Attempt at a Solution
I get 6 energy levels, because ml has -1,0,1 and each of those has a spin of +/- 1/2.
So what I did was just make the equation E0 + U, which gives me the initial energy, plus the energy that U provides. But I'm getting extremely small numbers for U. For example, for ml = 1, and the +1/2 spin, I'm getting, for U, 5.27x10-36. Added to E0, that's miniscule. Plus I'm always going to have a negative answer, since E0 is negative.
So I don't know why it's negative, and I'm not sure if my answers are correct, because they seem extremely small.
Thanks.