Photon emissions from hydrogen

[natugnaro]

[SOLVED] Photon emissions from hydrogen

Homework Statement

How many different photon emissions can hydrogen atom make going down from excited state 5 to ground level ?

Homework Equations

Thats what I'm lookin for.

The Attempt at a Solution

Simply by counting I got 10 different photon emissions.
But is there some equation for doing this elegantly ?

 

[dwintz02]

Isn't excited state 5 energy level n=6? So shouldn't there be 5+4+3+2+1 photons possible since from n=6, the electron can make 5 transitions, and from n=5 it can make 4 transitions, etc?

 

[natugnaro]

thanks, I got it

 

[natugnaro]

For excited state n there is (1+n)*n/2 possible different photon emissions.