[kitanii]

Using Rydberg's equation how might I calculate ni for a colour in the visible light spectrum (such as red with a wavelength of 6.563E-7m). I'm unsure how to re-arrange it. The nf for red light is n=2 since it is in the visible light spectrum. Any suggestions??


Rydberg's Equation:

1/wavelength =  (1.096776E7m) * ((1/nf^2)-(1/ni^2))

[Borek]

Move everything else step by step to the left hand side.

But things are not that simple in the end. Even if you solve for n_i, it will be still a function of n_f, plus, even plugging some known visible light wavelength won't yield integer result, you will need to round the result and then calculate the wavelength again to see if it really is in the visible range.

IMHO better approach is to write a program that will calculate wavelength for many n_f/n_i pairs and select those in the visible spectrum. Simple nested loop will do the trick.