Open AccessThe value of the Rydberg constant for spectral series
Author(s) -
W. E. Curtis
Publication year - 1919
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1919.0045
Subject(s) - balmer series , rydberg formula , hydrogen spectral series , series (stratigraphy) , rydberg constant , wavelength , constant (computer programming) , atomic physics , computational physics , physics , spectral line , mathematics , optics , quantum mechanics , computer science , emission spectrum , ionization , geology , ion , paleontology , programming language
In a previous paper, the results of a series of measurements of the wavelengths of the first six lines of the Balmer series of hydrogen were given, together with a determination of the Rydberg constant for spectral series. It has recently been pointed out to me by Prof. Fowler that the value of the series constant there obtained is not quite correct, in consequence of errors in the corrections applied to the observed wave-lengths to reduce them tovacuo , the data employed for this purpose having been taken from a Table appropriate to wave-lengths in air at 20°C., whereas the tertiary standards of iron upon which the wave-length determinations were based referred to 15°C. Before the introduction of the International system, wave-lengths had always been given for air at 20°C., and there was no explicit mention of the change of standard temperature in the paper by Burns, from which the iron arc wave-lengths used as standards were taken. The oversight might possibly have been detected earlier but for the author’s absence on military service from September, 1914, to January, 1919. In any case, however, a revision of the previous work would have been necessary in view of the recent accurate determinations at the Bureau of Standards of the refractive index of air, and also of other work, both theoretical and experimental, on the Balmer series, which has been carried out since 1914. The correction in question is of the order of + 0·02 A., and results, as will be seen, in a decrease of nearly one unit in the value of the Rydberg constant.