Negative signs

[Kalsuda Lapborisuth 1B]

I am confused with the signs when I use Rydberg equation and conservation of energy. Could someone kindly clarify this please?

[Sonia Aronson 1B]

I'm confused about this too...
I know the Rydberg equation is used to figure out the wavelength of a line in the hydrogen spectrum. The value isn't usually going to be negative because a bigger number is always subtracting a smaller number (1/2-1/4 for example).

[Chem_Mod]

See Chem_Mod post here: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=30965

[Steven Luong 1E]

Negative sign means that energy is being released. If you recall, if the change in energy is negative, that means energy is being released as photons, which is why when calculating wavelength and frequency you ignore the negative sign and utilize the positive value of delta e instead.