Let be the electron-nucleus separation and use the reduced mass . Coulomb attraction supplies the relative centripetal force, and Bohr quantization fixes the relative angular momentum:
Eliminating gives
The total energy is , hence
Here is the ordinary Bohr radius and the infinite-nuclear-mass Rydberg constant. The electron's radius about the centre of mass is ; for a heavy nucleus this distinction and the reduced-mass correction are small, but the supplied nuclear mass permits them to be stated precisely.
At room temperature, is of order , far smaller than the electronic excitation gaps of the inferred hydrogenic ion. Ground-state absorption is therefore the natural interpretation. Assign the three lines to , , and . Dividing each reciprocal wavelength by its corresponding factor gives
The small scatter is consistent with the rounded wavelength data. Since and ,
The ion is thus hydrogen-like lithium, . If “effective Rydberg constant” denotes only the reduced-mass constant rather than the charge-inclusive spectral coefficient, its value is . The two conventions are explicitly distinguished; the rounded lines do not determine a precise isotope mass.