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A126252 Wavenumbers of red, turquoise, blue, indigo and violet in the spectrum of hydrogen, as first measured by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff in 1859. +0
5
1523310, 2056410, 2303240, 2437290, 2518130 (list; graph; listen)
OFFSET

1,1

COMMENT

How Johann Jakob Ballmer found his formula in 1885 by analysing and manipulating the ratios of these data:

r(1) = a(1)/a(1) = 1,

a(2)/a(1) = 1.349961..., rounded: r(2) = 135/100 = 27/20,

a(3)/a(1) = 1.511996..., rounded: r(3) = 1512/1000 = 189/125,

a(4)/a(1) = 1.599996..., rounded: r(4) = 16/10 = 8/5,

a(5)/a(1) = 1.6530647..., r(5) = 81/49 = 2-1/(3-1/(9-1/2)), derived from a(5)/a(1) = 2-1/(3-1/(9-3095/6216)) when replacing 3095/6216 by 1/2;

the multiplication of these fractions by 5/36 is the key trick to get more handy figures to see eventually increasing squares in the denominators by an appropriate expansion:

b(1) = r(1)*5/36 = 5 / 36,

b(2) = r(2)*5/36 = 3 / 16,

b(3) = r(3)*5/36 = 21 / 100,

b(4) = r(4)*5/36 = 2 / 9,

b(5) = r(5)*5/36 = 45 / 196;

... b(1) .|.... b(2) ..|.... b(3) ..|.... b(4) ..|.... b(5),

... 5/36 .|.... 3/16 ..|... 21/100 .|.... 2/9 ...|... 45/196,

... 5/36 .|... 12/64 ..|... 21/100 .|... 32/144 .|... 45/196,

(9-4)/9*4 |(16-4)/16*4 |(25-4)/25*4 |(36-4)/36*4 |(49-4)/49*4,

this last step was the crowning achievement: the discovery of the pattern (x-y)/x*y,

b(n) = ((n+2)^2 - 4)/(4*(n+2)^2) = 1/4 - 1/(n+2)^2;

1<=n<=5: b(n) = A061037(n+2)/A061038(n+2) = A120072(n+2,2)/A120073(n+2,2).

REFERENCES

R. Taschner, Der Zahlen gigantischer Schatten, Vieweg 2005, 137-143.

LINKS

Science Trek, Balmer Formula

Eric Weisstein's World of Physics, Balmer Formula

Wikipedia, Empirical formula

Wikipedia, Johann Jakob Balmer

Wikipedia, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

Wikipedia, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff

CROSSREFS

Sequence in context: A159345 A126175 A128837 this_sequence A089492 A151620 A104827

Adjacent sequences: A126249 A126250 A126251 this_sequence A126253 A126254 A126255

KEYWORD

nonn,fini,full

AUTHOR

Reinhard Zumkeller (reinhard.zumkeller(AT)gmail.com), Dec 22 2006

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Last modified November 24 23:16 EST 2009. Contains 167481 sequences.


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