Hydrogen Balmer series measurements and determination of Rydberg's constant using two different spectrometers

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of two different methods, the optical and the computer-aided diffraction-grating spectrometer, to measure the wavelength of visible lines of Balmer series from the hydrogen atomic spectrum and estimate the value of Rydberg's constant. Analysis and interpretation of data showed that both methods, despite their difference in terms of the type of equipment used, displayed good performance in terms of precision of measurements of wavelengths of spectral lines. A comparison was carried out between the experimental value of Rydberg's constant obtained with both methods and the accepted value. The results of Rydberg's constant obtained with both the optical and computer-aided spectrometers were 1.099 28 × 10−7 m−1 and 1.095 13 × 10−7 m−1 with an error difference of 0.17% and 0.20% compared to the accepted value 1.097 373 × 10−7 m−1, respectively.