Name(s):
We can combine some of the equations derived in class last time to obtain an equation which relates the orbital speed of an electron in a hydrogenic atom to the quantum number n:
As mentioned in the last lecture, the transition from classical to relativistic behavior is a gradual one. However, as a rule of thumb, we usually start to worry about relativistic effects when the speed reaches 40% of the speed of light. (This leads to deviations from classical predictions of about 10%.) Using this guideline, what is the atomic number of the lightest hydrogenic atom for which relativistic effects are likely to be significant in the ground state?
