question_answer 15)

The total energy of an electron in the first excited state of the hydrogen atom is about - 3.4 eV. (a) What is the kinetic energy of the electron in this state ? (b) What is the potential energy of the electron in this state ? (c) Which of the answers above would change if the choice of the zero of potential energy is changed ?  

Answer:

The total energy of the electron in an orbit of radius is given by (For hydrogen atom) For first excited state, n = 2   (given)                ?(1) (a) The kinetic energy of the electron in the excited state is   (b) The potential energy of the electron in this excited state is  (c) Kinetic energy does not depend upon the choice of zero of potential energy. Therefore, its value remains unchanged. However, the potential energy gets changed with the change in the zero level of potential energy.