Lab 7.1: Flame Test and Emission Spectra

The spectrum of light is often refered to as the "fingerprint" of an element. As each element moves through the ground state to the excited state the electrons absorb energy and jump to a higher level. This is shown in the electron configuration where the electrons seem out of order and moved into a new orbital as the electrons move higher up with more energy. As the excited element goes back to the ground state electrons go back to the original configuration emitting/releasing extra energy in the form of light called spectra. Each element had there own bright line spectrum making them unique from one another like fingerprints.

Enrichement:

1.The astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium after studying the Sun during a solar eclipse.The spectral lines, he discovered was not any known element. He said that there must be an element on the Sun that had never been seen on Earth. The name comes from the Greek word helios for "sun."

2. A blue shift is when the spectra wavelength signals are shortened meaning the object is getting closer and the light emitted is on the blue end of the spectrum. The opposite effect called res shift is a longer wave length emitting light on the red end of the spectrum telling you something is moving farther away from the observer. The red shift and blue shift are evidence that the universe is expanding because all the galaxies in the universe are red shifted. Hubble approximated the relationship between redshifts and the distance with the formulation of Hubbles law.