Johannes Rydberg

Who was Johannes Rydberg?

Johannes Robert Rydberg was a Swedish physicist mainly known for devising the Rydberg formula, in 1888, which is used to predict the wavelengths of photons emitted by changes in the energy level of an electron in a hydrogen atom.

The physical constant known as the Rydberg constant is named after him, as is the Rydberg unit. Excited atoms with very high values of the principal quantum number, represented by n in the Rydberg formula, are called Rydberg atoms. Rydberg's anticipation that spectral studies could assist in a theoretical understanding of the atom and its chemical properties was justified in 1913 by the work of Niels Bohr. An important spectroscopic constant based on a hypothetical atom of infinite mass is called the Rydberg in his honour.

He was active at Lund University, Sweden, for all of his working life. The crater Rydberg on the Moon and asteroid 10506 Rydberg are named in his honour.

There is a pub night held in Rydberg's honour every Wednesday at the Department of Physics at Lund University.