[Cyberconvict]

I have a problem that I'm not sure how to work.

One of the emission lines of the hydrogen atom has a wavelenth of 93.8 nm. (a) In what region of the electromagnetic spectrum is this emission found? (b) Determine the initial and final values of n associated with this emission.

a. The answer to a is going to be the ultraviolet spectrum, because that's just where it's found.

b. I can solve for ? with the equation c = ??.
3.00x10^8 m/s = (9.38x10^-6 m)?
? = 3.20x10^-15 s ^-1

I then use this equation:
?=(Rh/h)((1/ni^2)-(1/nf^2))

If I plug the variables into there I am still left with ni and nf; how do I solve for those?

[Mitch]

What would n be for an atom in its ground state?

[Cyberconvict]

It's n=1, but is that always going to be the answer for nf? The answer in the back of the book is ni = 6 and nf = 1.

[Mitch]

For high school chemistry, yes.

[Cyberconvict]

Ok, I made that assumption for the above problem, but now I'm trying to for a different problem with no luck.

The problem is: The hydrogen atom can absorb light of wavelength 4055 nm. Determine the initial and final values of n associated with this absorption.

I plugged 4055 nm into c = ?? and get 7.40x10^13 s^-1 for ?.

I then try to plug that into the other equation making the assumption that ni = 1 because it is an absorption. This assumption does not seem to work for this problem. Any help on how to solve this would be appreciated.