Video Transcript
The diagram shows four possible
transitions that an electron can make between the energy levels of a hydrogen
atom. What name is given to this series
of transitions?
Here, the four possible transitions
are represented by arrows, each pointing between an initial and final energy
level. According to the diagram, the
transitions in this series are from level two to one, three to one, four to one, and
five to one. Notice that each one of these
transitions has the electron ending at the ground state or energy level one.
All of these transitions are
categorized under the same series because they mark a downward transition to the
ground state. This series is named the Lyman
series, after a 20th-century physicist who studied the transitions’ corresponding
photon emissions. Thus, the series in which an
electron transitions from an outer energy level to the ground state is known as the
Lyman series.
