White Light Lab
Introduction: To do the lab exercises for this lesson, you need to know a little bit about light. White light consists of all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. Diffraction refers to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. In classical physics, the diffraction phenomenon is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings. Isaac Newton thought that light must be a particle because particles of light that travels in straight lines until they are stopped by some object that blocks its path. When it is passed through a prism or a diffraction grating, the colors are separated into what we call a spectrum. A diffraction grating is a piece of glass
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The bright lines come from mercury gas inside the tube while the continuous spectrum comes from the phosphor coating lining the interior of the tube. After doing a little bit of research on the internet, I discovered that fluorescent light bulbs contain a mixture of inert gases (usually argon and neon) together with a drop of mercury at low pressure, so that some of the mercury atoms form a gas in the tube. I also learned that the inside of the glass tube is coated with a phosphor coating that is designed to absorb the UV light (radioactive absorption). For this experiment, a straight tube was used. As I placard the direction grating over my eye, I was able to thinner vertical lines. At this time, I was able to notice how the rainbow spectrum was different of that of the light bulb and candle. The rainbow spectrum was different than the previous two because I was now able to see a forth color, orange. The color blue was still thicker than the other colors. The four colors were blue, green, orange and red.
Neon light: For this experiment, I used a friends open sign neon light. During lecture, I learned that even though they are called neon lights, the lights do not necessarily contain neon gas, some contain argon or other gasses to produce different colors. The red ones contain neon. I conducted this experiment the same way I did the previous three. Placing a diffraction grating over my eye, I was able to see a straight rainbow spectrum. The spectrum of the neon light had several bright lines. The red lines were brightest. The four main colors were green, orange and red. This spectrum showed a discrete
The bright lines come from mercury gas inside the tube while the continuous spectrum comes from the phosphor coating lining the interior of the tube. After doing a little bit of research on the internet, I discovered that fluorescent light bulbs contain a mixture of inert gases (usually argon and neon) together with a drop of mercury at low pressure, so that some of the mercury atoms form a gas in the tube. I also learned that the inside of the glass tube is coated with a phosphor coating that is designed to absorb the UV light (radioactive absorption). For this experiment, a straight tube was used. As I placard the direction grating over my eye, I was able to thinner vertical lines. At this time, I was able to notice how the rainbow spectrum was different of that of the light bulb and candle. The rainbow spectrum was different than the previous two because I was now able to see a forth color, orange. The color blue was still thicker than the other colors. The four colors were blue, green, orange and red.
Neon light: For this experiment, I used a friends open sign neon light. During lecture, I learned that even though they are called neon lights, the lights do not necessarily contain neon gas, some contain argon or other gasses to produce different colors. The red ones contain neon. I conducted this experiment the same way I did the previous three. Placing a diffraction grating over my eye, I was able to see a straight rainbow spectrum. The spectrum of the neon light had several bright lines. The red lines were brightest. The four main colors were green, orange and red. This spectrum showed a discrete