Visualizations of Scientific Data
The Hydrogen Spectrum: All Names Series
Emission lines form when an electron jumps from a higher energy state to a lower one. The difference in energy is radiated away at a specific wavelength (seen below) for each transition. This visualization of the Grotrian diagram shows how the shape of the hydrogen electron cloud changes when going through the allowed transitions.
While most l and +m combinations are shown here, the electron must abide by the selection rules stating that transitions with Δl=±1 are the only ones allowed. Transitions like s-s, p-p, etc. are forbidden. The colored lines show all allowed transitions with n<9 for the particular named series. Orbitals are not to scale.
An animation can be found here:
The Hydrogen Spectrum: All Names Series
Emission lines form when an electron jumps from a higher energy state to a lower one. The difference in energy is radiated away at a specific wavelength (seen below) for each transition. This visualization of the Grotrian diagram shows how the shape of the hydrogen electron cloud changes when going through the allowed transitions.
While most l and +m combinations are shown here, the electron must abide by the selection rules stating that transitions with Δl=±1 are the only ones allowed. Transitions like s-s, p-p, etc. are forbidden. The colored lines show all allowed transitions with n<9 for the particular named series. Orbitals are not to scale.
An animation can be found here: