Flame Tests Lab Report 
Flame Tests
By: Jordan Anthony, Zack Balog, and Evan Degraw
Regents Chemistry class, Union Springs High School, 4th period
January 19/2015
The purpose of this lab was to see what colors are characteristic of particular metallic ions in a flame test and use their characteristic color to identify other elements. Another purpose is to understand how fireworks work. This experiment will help one understand how a flame test is performed and that every metal has a unique bright line spectra. This means a bright line spectra can be used to identify any element. This information can be used to identify elements in space to tell whether a planet has oxygen on it or not. If one can tell if a planet has oxygen on it based on its bright line spectra, research could be done to tell if people can live on the planet or not. This would be a huge advance in science if it was possible to tell if people can live on other planets by knowing the elements on the other planets. This would solve the problem of the world becoming over-populated and would help prevent the spread of disease.
Introduction- The purpose of this lab was to see what colors are characteristic of particular metallic ions in a flame test and use their characteristic color to identify other elements. Another purpose is to understand how fireworks work. A flame test is used to identify certain metals in a compound or single element.1 When an electron jumps up to a higher energy state the element is in its excited state. Elements are only in their excited for a brief moment. When the electron moves back down to a lower energy state, it emits light and produce a flame color.1 Sometimes there is more than one flame color because an electron might go from the 4s orbital then go to the 2p orbital which means two colors will be produced. Every element emits a different flame color or colors. These colors can be put on a bright line spectra which shows every color that the element produces in a
By: Jordan Anthony, Zack Balog, and Evan Degraw
Regents Chemistry class, Union Springs High School, 4th period
January 19/2015
The purpose of this lab was to see what colors are characteristic of particular metallic ions in a flame test and use their characteristic color to identify other elements. Another purpose is to understand how fireworks work. This experiment will help one understand how a flame test is performed and that every metal has a unique bright line spectra. This means a bright line spectra can be used to identify any element. This information can be used to identify elements in space to tell whether a planet has oxygen on it or not. If one can tell if a planet has oxygen on it based on its bright line spectra, research could be done to tell if people can live on the planet or not. This would be a huge advance in science if it was possible to tell if people can live on other planets by knowing the elements on the other planets. This would solve the problem of the world becoming over-populated and would help prevent the spread of disease.
Introduction- The purpose of this lab was to see what colors are characteristic of particular metallic ions in a flame test and use their characteristic color to identify other elements. Another purpose is to understand how fireworks work. A flame test is used to identify certain metals in a compound or single element.1 When an electron jumps up to a higher energy state the element is in its excited state. Elements are only in their excited for a brief moment. When the electron moves back down to a lower energy state, it emits light and produce a flame color.1 Sometimes there is more than one flame color because an electron might go from the 4s orbital then go to the 2p orbital which means two colors will be produced. Every element emits a different flame color or colors. These colors can be put on a bright line spectra which shows every color that the element produces in a