Finding the Excited State?

Question

A hydrogen atom in an excited state returns to the ground state. The photon emitted in this process has a wavelength of 122 nm. What was the excited state of the hydrogen atom prior to returning to the ground state?

n=

I converted the nm to m, then took (6.626 x 10^-34 Js) (2.998 x 10^8 m/s) and divided it by the m, but now I am stuck.

Answer 1

You should probably be using the formula

1/λ = 1.097x10⁷ m^-1 (1/n₁² - 1/n₂²) and solve for n₁ where n₂ = 1

You are correct to convert λ to m and then to use that in the above equation.

Or since you've already solved for ∆E, i.e. (6.626 x 10^-34 Js) (2.998 x 10^8 m/s) and divided it by the m, you could use the following: ∆E = 2.179x10^-18 J (1/n₁² - 1/n₂²)

The rest should be math, but it should work