He first excited state of the helium atom lies at an energy 19.82 eV above the ground state. If this excited state is three-fold degenerate while the ground state is non-degenerate, find the relative populations of the first excited and the ground states for helium gas in thermal equilibrium at 10,000 K.

Relative population is  2.94 x 10⁻¹⁰.

Explanation:

Let N₁ and N₂ be the number of atoms at ground and first excited state of helium respectively and E₁ and E₂ be the ground and first excited state energy of helium respectively.

The ratio of population of atoms as a function of energy and temperature is known as Boltzmann Equation. The equation is:

=  

=

Here g₁ and g₂ be the degeneracy at two levels, K is Boltzmann constant and T is equilibrium temperature.

Put 1 for g₁, 3 for g₂, -19.82 ev for (E₁ - E₂) and 8.6x10⁵ ev/K for K and 10000 k for T in the above equation.

=

= 3.4 x 10⁹

=  2.94 x 10⁻¹⁰

the only real purpose of sputnik 1 was to beat the us into space. we were getting close to launching a useful satellite, explorer 1 - which launched on january 31, 1958. the ussr had to beat that, so they launched sputnik 1 on october 4, 19