Elements as Light Flashcards
Scientists soon discovered
that elements can also produce light.
If you energize gaseous elements, what do they glow with
a characteristic coloured light
Colours that different elements glow
Helium glows orange, strontium glows red, copper glows green, etc. - think fireworks!
~And sodium? It glows yellow! (Think outdoor street lamps!)
If you take elemental light and pass it through a prism what happens?
the light does not produce a continuous spectrum
What happens instead if it is passed through a prism?
the spectrum splits into a characteristic pattern of lines of color.
This characteristic pattern is not what?
a mixture of all wavelengths, but a mixture of specific, individual wavelengths
What is an example?
with Hydrogen, you see four distinct lines of color (called a line spectrum)
