The energy of electron in first energy level is -21.79*10 raised to power -12erg per atom. The energy of electron in the second energy level is how much?..Please explain the process in detail.

The energy of the electron in the atom can take only the values given by,

Here, the energy is expressed as the work required to remove the electron to infinity and the energy of the electron at infinity is arbitrarily taken as zero.

At infinity, the electron is completely free from the influence of the proton. When the electron is attracted to proton, energy is evolved, and therefore the energy of the electron decreases and becomes negative. When n=1, the energy of the electron in the H atom is then - 21.79 × 10^-12 erg; the minus sign tells us that work must be done to move the electron away from the proton. The energy of electron in the second energy level is - 5.448 × 10^-12 erg atom^-1.

Answered by Hanisha Vyas | 29th May, 2014, 11:22: AM