Suppose you conducted the hydrogen emission experiment and you observed only red light but not green, blue, or violet.

Question

Would you conclude the power supply was faulty orwould you conclude that the tube did not contain enough hydrogen atoms?

Please explain thanks!

Answer 1

The observation of only red light indicates that the only light being observed is that of longest wavelength. That is, red light has a longer wavelength than does green, blue or violet. It then follows that this light (red) has the lowest energy. This suggests that the power supply might have been faulty, and thus not capable of exciting the hydrogen electron to high enough energy levels to see the other colors.