In: Physics
Consider a de-excitation of Hydrogen from an excited state n = 3 to the ground state n = 1. The transition to a lower energy state will cause the atom to emit a photon. Due to momentum conservation, the atom will have a small recoil velocity. Determine an expression of the recoil velocity of the hydrogen atom, and compute its numerical value. Do not leave ΔE or the photon frequency f in your answer! Note that the atom is non-relativistic.