= Johann Jakob Balmer
{c}
{title2=1825–1898}
{wiki}
= Johann Balmer
{c}
{synonym}
A Swiss <mathematician> and teacher remembered for finding an empirical pattern in the <hydrogen> <emission spectrum>. In 1885 he expressed the wavelengths of its visible <spectral lines> through a simple formula in integer parameters. The resulting <Balmer series> connected measured <wavelengths> that had previously looked like separate experimental numbers.
Balmer's result was a numerical regularity, rather than a physical explanation of atomic structure. Its success included a further predicted line consistent with observation. The later <Bohr model> explained why transitions between discrete <energy levels> produce such a series. The episode shows how a mathematical pattern can become evidence guiding a later physical theory. https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Balmer/[University of St Andrews historical biography, mathematical work and career]{ref}
A <mathematician>.https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Balmer/[Independent professional profile]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/UBH%20Portr%20BS%20Balmer%20JJ%201825%202.jpg?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Johann Jakob Balmer>}
{description=F. Brandseph, photograph circa 1865; Basel University Library, UBH Portr BS Balmer JJ 1825, 2c/2b/2a; contributed with Wikimedia CH. Public domain in Switzerland under expired-term rule and in life-plus-70 jurisdictions; library declares document public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-Switzerland-old-70[Source usage terms], via Wikimedia Commons.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UBH_Portr_BS_Balmer_JJ_1825_2.jpg}
{width=250}
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