# Transistions physics question

1. Sep 17, 2008

### a.a

how would you determine the transistion an election took in order to emit a photon of given frequency. Ive tried it with some of the formulas i can remember but i seem to end up with two variables ninitial and n- finial, which is basically what i am trying to solve for.

2. Sep 17, 2008

### yaychemistry

Re: Transistions

Are you speaking about electronic transitions in Hydrogen-like atoms? E.g. with the energy formula $$E_n = 13.6\textrm{eV}\frac{Z^2}{n^2}$$. Unless you are given more information to determine n initial or n final you will have two unknowns with one equation.
In that case you aren't guaranteed to have a unique solution, but because n is discrete it is likely there is one set of n's which give you the right answer for "reasonably" low n's. In this case you'll have to do a guess and check strategy.

While this might seem a poor question to put in homework because it is underspecified it actually reflects the challenges that early spectroscopists had in determining the Rydberg formula.

I hope that helped

3. Sep 17, 2008

### a.a

Re: Transistions

so we would have to do trial and error to find n initial and n final?
dat might take a while, the formula i used was:
delta E = Rh( 1/n-initial^2 - 1/n-finial^2)
and E= hf to find delta E