Top 10 Dangerous Plants In The World

1. Most likely to eat a rat

Giant Pitcher Plant: Nepenthes attenboroughii

Discovered more than 5000 feet above sea level on Mount Victoria in the Philippines, the giant, carnivorous pitcher plant secretes a nectar-like substance to lure unsuspecting prey into a pool of enzymes and acid. A series of sticky, downward ribs makes it nearly impossible for trapped prey to escape. The plant's 30-centimeter diameter is large enough to trap unlucky rodents, but insects are its most common meal. Pitcher plants, of which there are about 600 different species, tend to grow in nitrogen-deficient environments, and therefore get their nutrients from decaying victims.

2. Most likely to be in your garden now

Castor Bean Plant: Ricinus communis

Castor-bean plants can be purchased at just about any garden center, despite containing the deadly poison ricin. Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants and poisonous plant expert, has an affinity for the plant and grows several in her poison garden. Concerned gardeners can simply pluck the seeds off the plant, Stewart says, which is where the ricin is stored. Though the process to extract enough ricin and process it into a weapon is complex, Las Vegas authorities have discovered the toxin in a hotel room in February 2008, and the KGB used it to permanently silence opposition.

3. Most violently toxic plant in North America

Western Water Hemlock: Cicuta douglasii

Deemed the most "violently toxic plant that grows in North America" by the USDA, the water hemlock contains the toxin cicutoxin, which wreaks havoc on the central nervous system, causing grand mal seizures--which include loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions--and eventually death, if ingested. Water hemlock is different from poison hemlock, Socrates' notorious killer, in that it contains coniine alkaloids that kill by paralyzing the respiratory system. Both are members of the carrot family.

4. The plant that killed a president's mother

White snakeroot: Eupatorium rugosum

Drinking milk from a cow that decided to chow down on white snakeroot could lead to deadly milk sickness, as was the case with Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks. Every part of this perennial plant contains tremetol, an unsaturated alcohol that can cause muscle tremors in livestock before killing them. "People were trying desperately throughout the 19th century to figure out what was poisoning their animals," Stewart says. It wasn't understood until the turn of the century, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture pinpointed the cause and quickly got the word out. Now, white snakeroot still grows wild, but more control in the agricultural industry has helped to prevent cows from eating it.

5. The best plant to murder a dinner guest with

Monkshood: Aconitum napellus

Stewart was once asked what the best plant would be to murder a dinner guest with--after much deliberation she landed on monkshood. "You could just chop up the roots and make a stew," she says. "You don't need a chemistry plant to do it." The vibrant purple plant, commonly found in backyard gardens, is loaded with the poisonous alkaloid aconite, which tends to cause asphyxiation. While Stewart is certainly joking about cooking up a batch of monkshood stew, she urges anyone who has the plant in their garden to wear gloves when handling it.

6. Most gruesome killer

Common Bladderwort: Utricularia macrorhiza

This aquatic meat eater relies on several submerged bladders to capture prey such as tadpoles and small crustaceans. An unsuspecting passerby will brush against an external bristle-trigger, causing the bladders to spring open and capture it. Once inside, the victim dies of suffocation or starvation and then decays into a liquid that is sucked up by cells on the walls of the bladder.

7. Most animal-like

Venus flytrap: Dionaea muscipula

With the ability to clamp shut in a half-second, the Venus flytrap's reaction time seems fit for the animal kingdom. Insects need to touch two of the flytrap's hairs consecutively in order for the plant to react, but the precise mechanism that shuts the trap remains unclear. The Botanical Society of America notes that early theories suggested that a sudden change in the water pressure of cells triggered the response, but this theory has since been abandoned. It now seems that when the plant is touched, the electrical potential of the leaf is altered, triggering a host of cellular-level events.

8. The most likely plant to turn a person into a zombie

Angel Trumpet: Brugmansia

The droopy, gorgeous angel trumpet, native to regions of South America, packs a powerful punch of toxins, containing atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. As documented in the 2007 VBS.tv documentary "Colombian Devil's Breath," criminals in Colombia have extracted scopolamine from the plant and used it as a potent drug that leaves victims unaware of what they are doing but entirely conscious. Scopolamine can be absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, allowing criminals to simply blow the powder in a person's face. The documentary is filled with scopolamine-related horror stories, including one account of a man moving all of his possessions out of his apartment (and into the hands of his robbers) without remembering any of it.

9. The most enticing poison

Oleander: Nerium oleander

This extremely common evergreen shrub is one of the most poisonous plants in the world. "If I were a parent and covering every electrical outlet in the home to protect the kids, I would really have to ask myself why I had an oleander plant growing," Stewart says. The leaves, flowers and fruit contain cardiac glycosides, which have therapeutic applications but are likely to send someone into cardiac arrest should he eat part of the plant. Stewart points out that there is a woman in California currently on death row for trying to poison her husband with the plant, and two young boys were found dead after ingesting oleander a few years back. "People tend to be blasé, because the flowers are bright and pretty, sort of candy-colored. But it is a very poisonous plant that will stop your heart."

10. Best home-security system

Mala Mujer: Cnidoscolus angustidens

Stewart describes this garden plant as more painful than poisonous. Mala mujer, which translates to "bad woman," can be found in parts of the southwest and Mexico and is covered with nasty thorns, which could be turned into makeshift barbwire if needed. The real danger, however, comes from the caustic, milky sap that can leak from the plant. The sap, a common feature among many plants in the Euphorbia genus, can cause painful skin irritations and unsightly discoloration. "I've had several people tell me they had euphorbia saps in their eyes," Stewart says. "And they had pretty surprisingly long-term eye damage."

Read more: Top 10 Most Dangerous Plants in the World - Popular Mechanics

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Gmail Tips and Tricks

Gmail is famous with its security and Anti spam measures, if you are a big fan of a Gmail and want to get more good experience with new and exploring features of Gmail, this tutorial for everybody who love Gmail and this is really made for the Gmail power users ( Kidding, even for beginners ), if you are really one of them, then you must know all these things for handling your daily issues and usage with Gmail.
Most of us ignore many lab features which can save a lot time for you, so you must know how to use Gmail in a perfect way, this will increase your working with Gmail.

Connection issues :

If you’re stuck a slow connection and realize that most of your time goes refreshing your browser before you get to see your inbox, a nifty lab feature called inbox Preview Will bail you out. Although it wouldn’t make your Gmail any faster, it would certainly let you know whether you have any new email before you access your inbox. That means a lot in peak traffic, low bandwidth scenarios.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Yeah, Gmail’s keyboard shortcuts are an often ignored feature that could save you significant
amounts time doing those same mundane task in your inbox. To enable keyboard shortcuts, go to Settings>General and turn keyboard shortcuts on. To see a complete list of keyboard shortcuts just hit the? on your keyboard. You no longer need to click on compose, just hit [C]. You can access the previous and next messages by pressing [P] and [N], respectively. There are shortcuts for more tasks than you would normally use. So go ahead and explore this Gmail feature to the fullest.
Mouse gestures feature:
Go to Settings>Labs, enable Mouse Gestures. If you’re comfortable with mouse gestures in Opera, then you’ll find Gmail’s mouse gestures quite familiar. Hold the right button of the mouse and drag to the right to move to the next message. Similarly, drag to the left to go to the previous message. If you are in a message, then drag up and left to go to the inbox.

Gmail direct to your browser:

If you’re a Firefox user, you can use “Gmail Manager” plugin to speed up access to your Gmail. Install this add-on and you gets notification in the bottom tray with the number of unread messages, and quick shortcuts to Compose. The same goes for Chrome with their “Google Mail Checker Plus” extension.

Clean up clutter:

Most of the time, we end up deleting spam, or archiving repetitive email that we may need sometime in the future. Gmail lets you automate several tasks at once. You could use Gmail’s effective filters to segregate your email into the right folder (labels in Gmail). This way, you could do away with the usual clutter you would normally have wasted a significant percentage of your time reading through. If you know the sender, just go to Settings>Filters, click on Create a new filter.
You can sort email according to the sender, recipient, subject, or body. Enter the criteria relevant to your need. You can test the results if you want to. Click Next and select the action. You can delete unwanted email or archive necessary but repetitive email, in addition to other actions.

Use labels:

Another useful feature with Gmail is Labels. Unlike Folders in most email clients, you can have an email appearing in multiple locations. This comes in handy to fetch your email when you require it the most. For example if you’re planning a new PC configuration and have several conversation going on with 3 vendors, you could label the relevant email with the vendor’s name as well as a name for the PC configuration, say star computers and Gaming PC.
This way, whenever you want to relook at the quotes, you can click on Gaming PC to get all conversations related to your PC. If all you remember is one of the vendors, you can click on the Label and you will see email labeled with the vendor name and the other labels applied to the same conversation. Select that label to view all the conversations you ever had on this topic.
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Blog Design for Beginners

The following post is a guest post from the very talented blog designer, Peter Flaschner, as part of the blogging for beginners series.
Hi all. I’m Peter Flaschner, the founder and creative dictator at The Blog Studio. I’m going to walk you through the process we go through when designing a blog or other website. This is part one of two. When we’re done, we’ll have a super flexible WordPress theme perfect for anyone looking to make a buck with a blog.
Design can add tremendous value to a blog. When it comes to making money with your blog, proper web design can make a huge impact on your bottom line. For some reason, I get a lot of resistance when I say this. I think it has to do with one’s perceived definition of design. The typical response I get is ‘ugly sites do well with adsense’. That may very well be true. I bet though, that those same sites would do even better with proper design.
Before we get into this, I need to dispel one further myth: design is not about making things pretty. It’s about making things work to their best ability. Let me quote from dictionary.com:

• To formulate a plan for; devise: designed a marketing strategy for the new product.
• To plan out in systematic, usually graphic form: design a building; design a computer program.
• To create or contrive for a particular purpose or effect: a game designed to appeal to all ages.
• To have as a goal or purpose; intend.
• To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner.

So, without further ado, let’s design a site. Here’s what we’re going to need: pencil, paper, and a graphics editor (such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, or Gimp).
We’re going to start by collecting a bunch of information. I know the instinct is to jump straight into your drawing program and start messing around, but it’s not the best approach. You’ll see why as we move through this.

We’re going to design a site for a fictional problogger. This person (let’s call him Fred) writes about watches. He’s earning a couple of hundred bucks a month from his current site, and wants to step that up.
Step 1: Identify the site’s goals (what are you trying to do? How will you achieve it)
We’re designing this site to increase Fred’s profit. We’re going to do this by designing a flexible framework for Fred to experiment with ad placement, by increasing the attention grabbing aspect in order to capture more first time visitors, and by increasing the site’s stickiness, giving users more chances to see an ad that they want to click on.
While we’re at it, we’re going to use a plugin we recently developed that will give Fred control over the colour of the various elements of his site. This way, he’ll be able to keep things looking fresh.
Step 2: Identify your audience (who are they, and where do they come from)
Fred’s audience is made up of two groups: hardcore watch nuts, who read Fred’s site for news and reviews of the latest timepieces, and people shopping for watches, who come to the site via searches for specific makes and models.
Step 3: Identify specific needs (what functions does the site need to have in order to meet its goals?)
Flexibility with a minimum of fuss is key here. We want Fred to be able to move ad blocks around without having to mess with the code. We also want Fred to be able to change up the look of his site to keep things fresh, again, without messing with the code.
We also want to increase the site’s stickiness. We’ll do this by including a “favorite posts” listing and related links in the post’s footer.
We’ll show a category listing, to allow readers to explore the site in a non-linear way, and a search bar, so readers can search for specific makes or models. We also want to include a blogroll, to share the love. Finally, we want to show recent comments, so Fred’s regular site visitors can keep up with the overall conversation.
Step 4: Draw wireframes (rough sketches to experiment with element placement and layout)
Now the fun starts. I use a fabulous program called OmniGraffle (mac only) to play around with site layout and element hierarchy (more on this in a moment). I like to stay out of my graphics editor, since the potential to get sucked into designing visual elements is so strong. You really want to avoid jumping into the visual part of the design at this stage, since you’ll just end up getting lost.
What we’re doing now is building the terrain that we’ll lay our visual elements over. Skipping this stage is is the single biggest mistake newbie designers make.
Here’s an example of Fred’s site in the first stages of development:

As you can see, there’s no “design” per se present. What we’re doing though is figuring out the optimal placement of the various blocks that make up our site. We’re establishing the hierarchy of the page elements; deciding what’s most important, where we want the users’ eye to move.
This is a very rich area of study. I’m going to try to boil it down to it’s most basic (this data comes from an article by Peter Faraday. In essence we perform 2 functions immediately upon landing on a web page: search, and scan. The search function is our eye looking for a salient entry point into the page. We are attracted by the following (in descending order)

1. motion
2. size
3. images
4. colour
5. text style (font choice, font weight)
6. position

Once we’ve determined where we can start reading, we determine what to read by scanning the page. We look at groups of objects, and the proximity of individual objects to decide what is most important to read first.
Knowing this, we can make decisions in the layout and styling of our pages in order to increase the odds of generating the intended response (ie, clicking on an ad).
The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that we have more ad blocks than Google currently allows. We won’t be using them all at the same time, but we’re building them in so Frank has the ability to move the ads around.
Step 5: Make a mood board (a collection of images, colours, type, etc that give you the feel you’re aiming for).
On larger jobs, we collect a bunch of imagery that feels like the project at hand. We look through magazines (fashion mags are a goldmine), books, and the web for colours, textures, layouts, etc. We cut up the magazines or print stuff out and literally make up a board that summarizes the mood we’re aiming to create for the site.
For a smaller job, we go through the same process, but create a virtual board instead. This is basically a big document in Photoshop that we can paste a bunch of stuff into. These images become our starting place for creating a colour palette, exploring texture and form, and generally acting as inspiration.
Creating one of these things doesn’t take long – go and try it, you’ll be surprised how much it helps.
Here’s an example from a recent project:

Step 6: Visual design
Having completed all of the above, the visual design is a much more manageable job than had we jumped straight in at the outset. Now we can concentrate on the site’s balance, energy, and style.
One huge mistake web design newbies make is not leaving enough space around the individual elements. This is called “white space”. Note that it doesn’t have to be white! Rather, the term refers simply to empty space.
At this point, you should be pretty well along in your design. I’m going to leave you now and get to work on Fred’s design.
Tomorrow, we’ll turn our static graphic into a WordPress theme.
Before I go, here’s where I’m at with Fred’s site so far:

update: Peter’s just emailed to say he and most of his family are unwell. As a result, the next part of this mini series might be a day or two away. Stay tuned for part 2.

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iPhone 5 with dual sensor and 3-D camera- new images leaked

A Chinese website 175wan has leaked another iPhone 5 images showing two camera sensors for 3D Picture taking. The Front and rear photo of alleged iPhone 5 defies the possibility of a larger edge to edge screen in iPhone 5 and shows the physical specs to be quite similar to iPhone 4.


The Chinese website claimed that the above photos were sent by a friends from city of Shenzhen, where Apple’s components are manufactured.
Apple insider has earlier stated that Apple has filed a patent for 3D image taking back in March. Where there system will be able to capturing, processing and rendering 3D images with the additional dual-camera hardware.
Although the Apple’s patent diagram had 3 Sensors listed, the above images shows only 2. Do you think its the real iPhone 5 picture ??
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Apple places order for 15 million iphone 5 handsets

The most awaited and hotly anticipated Apple’s next generation iphone, iphone 5 has gone into production. Apple has ordered the production of 15 million iphone 5 handsets and the speculation is completely focused on exactly when and what the Cupertino based company will do in regard to the launch of its next generation iphone. Apple hasn’t yet issued any official statement regarding its next generation iphone, we don’t even know what it is going to be called officially.
DigiTimes reported that Pegatron,Taiwan-based tech manufacturer has won the contract to begin production of 15 million new iphone for a September sales launch. But the company made no comment about the report.
DigiTimes also reported that the next generation iphone, iphone 5 doesn’t seem to have any major update from iphone 4 but it is already set for shipment in September. The report indicates that the parts are already being supplied to the Taiwan based company, Pegatron  from the plants in Shanghai, China and the company is hiring new people to meet the production demand.
Minor updates for the forthcoming iphone 5 from Apple’s iphone 4, are expected to include an A5 processor, a better camera with steel casing instead of glass casing used with the iphone 4.
15 million iphone 5 units!!  sounds like a great deal — Isn’t it?? Traditionally Apple is a little tight on the orders to start with and then increases up the production once its gadgets are on sale.
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IMAX Technical Fact Sheet

IMAX Technical Fact Sheet

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	IMAX: Larger than Life (IMAX)

Imax Corporation is the pioneer and leader of giant-screen large-format film and motion simulator entertainment. It is the leading provider of high-impact out-of-home high technology entertainment systems.
IMAX INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY
IMAX technology combines a variety of technological innovations: special cameras, special projectors, wide screens, specially-designed theatres with steeply raked seating, and films shot on 65mm negative stock.
FILM FORMAT

IMAX technology uses the largest commercial film format in motion picture history -- 70mm, 15-perforation -- three times the size of regular 70mm, and ten times the size of conventional 35mm which you would see in a normal movie theatre.

SCREENS
It is projected on giant screens which extend beyond your peripheral vision -- so big, in fact, that a whale can appear life-size -- IMAX screens can be up to eight stories high. Because these screens fill your peripheral vision, you have the sense of being right in the action

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Conventional and IMAX Screen Sizes (IMAX)

PROJECTOR
It features the most advanced projector ever built using Imax's patented Rolling Loop technology. Each frame is positioned on fixed registration pins; the film is held firmly against the rear element of the lens by a vacuum. A 68 per cent shutter transmits one third more light than a conventional 50 per cent shutter. In 1997, Imax introduced a 3D projection system (IMAX 3D SR) designed for smaller markets which can be integrated into an existing multiplex.
DIGITAL SOUND SYSTEM
IMAX theatres feature a patented digital audio technology with advanced circuits designed specifically to enhance sound clarity and depth of sound reproduction. IMAX sound also uses proprietary signal processing, amplification and loudspeaker design.
THEATRE DESIGN

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	IMAX Dome Comparisons (IMAX)

Large-format films are shown in specially-designed theatres where the seating decks are steeply raked, so that even a child's view is unobstructed and people can look up and down, as in real life.
IMAX 3D
IMAX 3D technology is acknowledged to be the best 3D in the world. Imax has developed a special 3D camera which incorporates two camera movements into one housing. It has adapted the Rolling Loop projector to project 3D and uses either IMAX 3D glasses with polarizing filters or electronic liquid-crystal shutter glasses (as at the SONY IMAX Theatre in New York).

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Imax Technology

Creating Films for Imax theatres

The IMAX theater experience is the leading cinema experience. The resolution, fidelity and stability of an original 15/70 motion picture image in an IMAX theater are a combination that nothing beats.

15/70 is the world's largest film format and was conceived as part of the development of the first IMAX projector (1970). For a filmmaker, large format film can be a creatively irresistible, but at the same time, highly challenging medium to work in.
15/70 is the most expensive medium in the world, so generally not the best format with which to learn how to make films. It can also be a difficult medium for experienced filmmakers who have learned their craft in another format and come to the larger format with expectations derived from their experience in the smaller, more versatile medium.
15 Perforation / 70mm
The 15/70 film frame is 10 times larger than a frame of 35mm used in regular cinemas and three times larger than standard 70mm film used in classic feature film releases such as “Lawrence of Arabia”. The 15/70 format is configured so that each frame is 15 perforations in width on 70mm film. Projected with an IMAX projector, the film runs horizontally through the gate (as compared with 35mm motion picture film and standard 70mm which run vertically through the projector).

The experience / Imax image capture

The IMAX Camera
The IMAX camera is designed to shoot the 15/70 film format. The IMAX camera uses 65mm negative film stock which is later contact printed to 70mm print stock (positive) for projection. The image area on the negative and on the print film stock is the same—the additional area on the 70mm format was originally designed to accommodate a soundtrack (optically or magnetically encoded).

IMAX cameras weigh between 42 and 100 pounds (19-45 Kg) approximately, depending on model and configuration. 3D film camera configurations weigh significantly more. A typical film load (one roll) is 1,000 feet (305 metres) in length and representsapproximately 3 minutes of raw footage.
Alternate Formats
Other camera systems are sometimes used by filmmakers to capture scenes for use in films that will be exhibited on giant screens. These camera systems include 35mm and HD video. Typically scenes acquired on these lower resolution systems are digitally remastered to enhance their appearance for the big screen. IMAX Corporation offers a proprietary digital remastering service entitled DMR which is used principally to repurpose 35mm feature films for release in IMAX cinemas. Alternative formats cannot offer the full resolution and clarity possible with 15/70 film, but they do provide ways to create content that is not necessarily feasible with the larger and more expensive 15/70 format.

Imax Theatres

There are more than 400 large format theaters worldwide. Projectors manufactured by IMAX Corporation and using the 15/70 film format, represent the dominant technology in this marketplace.

What is IMAX? IMAX theaters combine advanced large format projection technology with giant screens up to 8 storeys high and powerful wrap-around 12,000-watt digital sound systems. The result is an unsurpassed sensory experience.

There are more than 280 IMAX theaters in 40 countries world wide. These theaters are located in commercial multiplex cinemas, in museums, science centers, aquaria, or theme parks, or are situated as stand-alone venues. Theater installations feature either IMAX (flat screen 2D) or IMAX 3D systems or the IMAX Dome system.
Click here to see more IMAX Theaters.

Imax Technology

IMAX, IMAX 3D and IMAX Dome projectors are the most advanced, precise and powerful film projectors ever built. IMAX Rolling Loop technology ensures far superior picture and focus steadiness to deliver the largest, sharpest and brightest images imaginable.
IMAX and IMAX 3D giant flat screens soar up to eight stories high and are designed to encompass the audience’s peripheral vision. These screens are painted silver to maximize the amount of light reflected back to the audience. Half the size of a football field and large enough to show a whale life-size, IMAX screens fully immerse audience members in the scene.
Semi-circular IMAX Dome screens produce huge images that soar and swoop above, beside and behind you to fully surround you in The IMAX Experience.
All these theaters project the 15/70 film format.
Sound
IMAX uncompressed digital, wrap-around sound is simply unsurpassed in depth and clarity. A proprietary six-channel, Proportional Point SourceTM Loudspeaker system delivers exacting volume and quality at every seat throughout the theatre. Audience members hear every shade and subtlety, regardless of where they are sitting.
Other Formats and Manufacturers
Additional manufacturers of large format film projection systems include Simex-Iwerks and GOTO. While 15/70 is the principal format for projection in giant screen theaters, some theaters use 8/70 projection systems and a small number use 10/70 in planetarium environments. These film formats all use 70mm film but use different configurations of film frame.
Digital
Digital projection is finding its way into many conventional cinemas and it is only a matter of time before giant screen presentations will also be delivered this way. IMAX Corporation and other manufacturers are engaged in the development of digital projection technologies to deliver the substantially larger information load or ‘bandwidth’ required for giant screen presentations.





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Hydrogen Atom Spectrum

This page introduces the atomic hydrogen emission spectrum, showing how it arises from electron movements between energy levels within the atom. It also looks at how the spectrum can be used to find the ionisation energy of hydrogen. What is an emission spectrum? Observing hydrogen's emission spectrum A hydrogen discharge tube is a slim tube containing hydrogen gas at low pressure with an electrode at each end. If you put a high voltage across this (say, 5000 volts), the tube lights up with a bright pink glow. If the light is passed through a prism or diffraction grating, it is split into its various colours. What you would see is a small part of the hydrogen emission spectrum. Most of the spectrum is invisible to the eye because it is either in the infra-red or the ultra-violet. The photograph shows part of a hydrogen discharge tube on the left, and the three most easily seen lines in the visible part of the spectrum on the right. (Ignore the "smearing" - particularly to the left of the red line. This is caused by flaws in the way the photograph was taken. See note below.)
	Note:  This photograph is by courtesy of Dr Rod Nave of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University, Atlanta. The photograph comes from notes about the hydrogen spectrum in his HyperPhysics pages on the University site. If you are interested in more than an introductory look at the subject, that is a good place to go. Ideally the photo would show three clean spectral lines - dark blue, cyan and red. The red smearing which appears to the left of the red line, and other similar smearing (much more difficult to see) to the left of the other two lines probably comes, according to Dr Nave, from stray reflections in the set-up, or possibly from flaws in the diffraction grating. I have chosen to use this photograph anyway because a) I think it is a stunning image, and b) it is the only one I have ever come across which includes a hydrogen discharge tube and its spectrum in the same image.
Extending hydrogen's emission spectrum into the UV and IR There is a lot more to the hydrogen spectrum than the three lines you can see with the naked eye. It is possible to detect patterns of lines in both the ultra-violet and infra-red regions of the spectrum as well. These fall into a number of "series" of lines named after the person who discovered them. The diagram below shows three of these series, but there are others in the infra-red to the left of the Paschen series shown in the diagram. The diagram is quite complicated, so we will look at it a bit at a time. Look first at the Lyman series on the right of the diagram - this is the most spread out one and easiest to see what is happening.
	Note:  The frequency scale is marked in PHz - that's petaHertz. You are familiar with prefixes like kilo (meaning a thousand or 103 times), and mega (meaning a million or 106 times). Peta means 1015 times. So a value like 3 PHz means 3 x 1015 Hz. If you are worried about "Hertz", it just means "cycles per second".
The Lyman series is a series of lines in the ultra-violet. Notice that the lines get closer and closer together as the frequency increases. Eventually, they get so close together that it becomes impossible to see them as anything other than a continuous spectrum. That's what the shaded bit on the right-hand end of the series suggests. Then at one particular point, known as the series limit, the series stops. If you now look at the Balmer series or the Paschen series, you will see that the pattern is just the same, but the series have become more compact. In the Balmer series, notice the position of the three visible lines from the photograph further up the page. Complicating everything - frequency and wavelength You will often find the hydrogen spectrum drawn using wavelengths of light rather than frequencies. Unfortunately, because of the mathematical relationship between the frequency of light and its wavelength, you get two completely different views of the spectrum if you plot it against frequency or against wavelength. The relationship between frequency and wavelength The mathematical relationship is: Rearranging this gives equations for either wavelength or frequency. What this means is that there is an inverse relationship between the two - a high frequency means a low wavelength and vice versa.
	Note:  You will sometimes find frequency given the much more obvious symbol, f.
Drawing the hydrogen spectrum in terms of wavelength This is what the spectrum looks like if you plot it in terms of wavelength instead of frequency: . . . and just to remind you what the spectrum in terms of frequency looks like: Is this confusing? Well, I find it extremely confusing! So what do you do about it? For the rest of this page I shall only look at the spectrum plotted against frequency, because it is much easier to relate it to what is happening in the atom. Be aware that the spectrum looks different depending on how it is plotted, but, other than that, ignore the wavelength version unless it is obvious that your examiners want it. If you try to learn both versions, you are only going to get them muddled up!
	Note:  Syllabuses probably won't be very helpful about this. You need to look at past papers and mark schemes. If you are working towards a UK-based exam and don't have these things, you can find out how to get hold of them by going to the syllabuses page.
Explaining hydrogen's emission spectrum The Balmer and Rydberg Equations By an amazing bit of mathematical insight, in 1885 Balmer came up with a simple formula for predicting the wavelength of any of the lines in what we now know as the Balmer series. Three years later, Rydberg generalised this so that it was possible to work out the wavelengths of any of the lines in the hydrogen emission spectrum. What Rydberg came up with was: RH is a constant known as the Rydberg constant. n1 and n2 are integers (whole numbers). n2 has to be greater than n1. In other words, if n1 is, say, 2 then n2 can be any whole number between 3 and infinity. The various combinations of numbers that you can slot into this formula let you calculate the wavelength of any of the lines in the hydrogen emission spectrum - and there is close agreement between the wavelengths that you get using this formula and those found by analysing a real spectrum.
	Note:  If you come across a version of Balmer's original equation, it won't look like this. In Balmer's equation, n1 is always 2 - because that gives the wavelengths of the lines in the visible part of the spectrum which is what he was interested in. His original equation was also organised differently. The modern version shows more clearly what is going on.
You can also use a modified version of the Rydberg equation to calculate the frequency of each of the lines. You can work out this version from the previous equation and the formula relating wavelength and frequency further up the page.
	Note:  You may come across versions of the Rydberg equation where the n1 and n2 are the other way around, or they may even be swapped for letters like m and n. Whichever version you use, the bigger number must always be the one at the bottom of the right-hand term - the one you take away. If you get them the wrong way around, it is immediately obvious if you start to do a calculation, because you will end up with a negative answer!
The origin of the hydrogen emission spectrum The lines in the hydrogen emission spectrum form regular patterns and can be represented by a (relatively) simple equation. Each line can be calculated from a combination of simple whole numbers. Why does hydrogen emit light when it is excited by being exposed to a high voltage and what is the significance of those whole numbers? When nothing is exciting it, hydrogen's electron is in the first energy level - the level closest to the nucleus. But if you supply energy to the atom, the electron gets excited into a higher energy level - or even removed from the atom altogether. The high voltage in a discharge tube provides that energy. Hydrogen molecules are first broken up into hydrogen atoms (hence the atomic hydrogen emission spectrum) and electrons are then promoted into higher energy levels. Suppose a particular electron was excited into the third energy level. This would tend to lose energy again by falling back down to a lower level. It could do this in two different ways. It could fall all the way back down to the first level again, or it could fall back to the second level - and then, in a second jump, down to the first level. Tying particular electron jumps to individual lines in the spectrum If an electron falls from the 3-level to the 2-level, it has to lose an amount of energy exactly the same as the energy gap between those two levels. That energy which the electron loses comes out as light (where "light" includes UV and IR as well as visible). Each frequency of light is associated with a particular energy by the equation: The higher the frequency, the higher the energy of the light. If an electron falls from the 3-level to the 2-level, red light is seen. This is the origin of the red line in the hydrogen spectrum. By measuring the frequency of the red light, you can work out its energy. That energy must be exactly the same as the energy gap between the 3-level and the 2-level in the hydrogen atom. The last equation can therefore be re-written as a measure of the energy gap between two electron levels. The greatest possible fall in energy will therefore produce the highest frequency line in the spectrum. The greatest fall will be from the infinity level to the 1-level. (The significance of the infinity level will be made clear later.) The next few diagrams are in two parts - with the energy levels at the top and the spectrum at the bottom. If an electron fell from the 6-level, the fall is a little bit less, and so the frequency will be a little bit lower. (Because of the scale of the diagram, it is impossible to draw in all the jumps involving all the levels between 7 and infinity!) . . . and as you work your way through the other possible jumps to the 1-level, you have accounted for the whole of the Lyman series. The spacings between the lines in the spectrum reflect the way the spacings between the energy levels change. If you do the same thing for jumps down to the 2-level, you end up with the lines in the Balmer series. These energy gaps are all much smaller than in the Lyman series, and so the frequencies produced are also much lower. The Paschen series would be produced by jumps down to the 3-level, but the diagram is going to get very messy if I include those as well - not to mention all the other series with jumps down to the 4-level, the 5-level and so on. The significance of the numbers in the Rydberg equation n1 and n2 in the Rydberg equation are simply the energy levels at either end of the jump producing a particular line in the spectrum. For example, in the Lyman series, n1 is always 1. Electrons are falling to the 1-level to produce lines in the Lyman series. For the Balmer series, n1 is always 2, because electrons are falling to the 2-level. n2 is the level being jumped from. We have already mentioned that the red line is produced by electrons falling from the 3-level to the 2-level. In this case, then, n2 is equal to 3. The significance of the infinity level The infinity level represents the highest possible energy an electron can have as a part of a hydrogen atom. So what happens if the electron exceeds that energy by even the tiniest bit? The electron is no longer a part of the atom. The infinity level represents the point at which ionisation of the atom occurs to form a positively charged ion. Using the spectrum to find hydrogen's ionisation energy When there is no additional energy supplied to it, hydrogen's electron is found at the 1-level. This is known as its ground state. If you supply enough energy to move the electron up to the infinity level, you have ionised the hydrogen. The ionisation energy per electron is therefore a measure of the distance between the 1-level and the infinity level. If you look back at the last few diagrams, you will find that that particular energy jump produces the series limit of the Lyman series.
	Note:  Up to now we have been talking about the energy released when an electron falls from a higher to a lower level. Obviously if a certain amount of energy is released when an electron falls from the infinity level to the 1-level, that same amount will be needed to push the electron from the 1-level up to the infinity level.
If you can determine the frequency of the Lyman series limit, you can use it to calculate the energy needed to move the electron in one atom from the 1-level to the point of ionisation. From that, you can calculate the ionisation energy per mole of atoms. The problem is that the frequency of a series limit is quite difficult to find accurately from a spectrum because the lines are so close together in that region that the spectrum looks continuous. Finding the frequency of the series limit graphically Here is a list of the frequencies of the seven most widely spaced lines in the Lyman series, together with the increase in frequency as you go from one to the next. As the lines get closer together, obviously the increase in frequency gets less. At the series limit, the gap between the lines would be literally zero. That means that if you were to plot the increases in frequency against the actual frequency, you could extrapolate (continue) the curve to the point at which the increase becomes zero. That would be the frequency of the series limit. In fact you can actually plot two graphs from the data in the table above. The frequency difference is related to two frequencies. For example, the figure of 0.457 is found by taking 2.467 away from 2.924. So which of these two values should you plot the 0.457 against? It doesn't matter, as long as you are always consistent - in other words, as long as you always plot the difference against either the higher or the lower figure. At the point you are interested in (where the difference becomes zero), the two frequency numbers are the same. As you will see from the graph below, by plotting both of the possible curves on the same graph, it makes it easier to decide exactly how to extrapolate the curves. Because these are curves, they are much more difficult to extrapolate than if they were straight lines. Both lines point to a series limit at about 3.28 x 1015 Hz.
	Note:  Remember that 3.28 PHz is the same as 3.28 x 1015 Hz. You can use the Rydberg equation to calculate the series limit of the Lyman series as a check on this figure: n1 = 1 for the Lyman series, and n2 = infinity for the series limit. 1/(infinity)2 = zero. That gives a value for the frequency of 3.29 x 1015 Hz - in other words the two values agree to within 0.3%.
So . . . now we can calculate the energy needed to remove a single electron from a hydrogen atom. Remember the equation from higher up the page: We can work out the energy gap between the ground state and the point at which the electron leaves the atom by substituting the value we've got for frequency and looking up the value of Planck's constant from a data book. That gives you the ionisation energy for a single atom. To find the normally quoted ionisation energy, we need to multiply this by the number of atoms in a mole of hydrogen atoms (the Avogadro constant) and then divide by 1000 to convert it into kilojoules.
	Note:  It would be wrong to quote this to more than 3 significant figures. The value for the frequency obtained from the graph is only to that accuracy.
This compares well with the normally quoted value for hydrogen's ionisation energy of 1312 kJ mol-1.

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