CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Does Dr. Lavelle prefer that we use the difference in energy equation, and then the Bohr frequency condition, and then the c = hv equation to calculate an electron's wavelength when it transitions from a higher energy level to a lower energy level as opposed to the Rydberg equation?

In his lecture and module, he doesn't use the Rydberg equation to solve this even though this way might be faster and simpler.

Some homework problems also specify to use the Rydberg equation to solve, so I am confused on which method to use.

Although it is a lot easier to use Rydberg's equation, I would think that it would be best to do it the way Professor Lavelle taught us, so that would be using the En=(-h)R/n^2 and
E=Efinal-Einital equations.

In my discussion, we discussed this and one of the main reasons why they dont want us to use the Rydberg equation is because many times they will plug the wrong "n" into the equation. However, they still want us to have a basic understanding of how to use it. One way to check if your answer is right is knowing that you cannot have a photon with negative energy or wavelength. Therefore if you used the Rydberg equation and you get a negative number for one of those values, just switch where you plugged in the value of "n" and recalculate.