An Experimental Investigation of Spectral Lines of Helium

Abstract

This project involves the optics of some aspects of the concave grating spectrograph and the structure of the helium atom in attempting to account for its spectrum. Since my knowledge of the subject is severely limited, no model of helium based on quantum mechanics principles is presented. For helium, Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom is expanded to provide a classical model. The limitations of the classical approach makes the investigation a very challenging one.