[renia45]

Hello everyone
The question is:
The energies of quanta that are absorbed by gaseous sodium atoms are shown below:

ENERGY OF QUANTA (kJ/mol)
0 ---> (Ne)3s1
203 ---> (Ne)3p1
308 ---> (Ne)4s1
349 ---> (Ne)3d1
362 ---> (Ne)4p1

The ionization energy of the ground state is 496 kJ/mol. Calculate the ionization energies for each of the states given in the table.

So I thought of approaching the problem using:

IE = (2.179E-18) (Z^2)/(n^2)

However if n is the principal quantum number than the energy for 3d1 and 3p1 would be the same which is incorrect.

Any suggestions would be appreciated thanks

[Borek]

Do you know Hess's law? Similar approach is needed here. Energy to ionize given state must be identical to the one calculated for given state->ground state->ionized state path.

[renia45]

Ok thanks for your reply.
So which equation would I use?

[Borek]

There is no special equation, whatever equation is needed you should be able to derive it now by yourself.

Don't think in terms of quantum numbers, this is simple conservation of energy.

[renia45]

Alright then, so I start off with the 496 kJ/mol I assume then? And based on the conservation of energy how do I go about obtaining the other values? Do I need the energy of quanta at all (since there are more parts to the question so maybe the chart doesn't apply to this part)?