Lines of Light and Burning Chemicals

Charlie You and Andie Marczewski 10/22/12

Group Members Class

Andie Marczewski, Charlie You

Honours Chemistry CD1 Jandreau

Purpose
The purpose of this lab is to observe and record the light emission spectra that is produced by sunlight, ourescent lights, and other gases. This data is then used to determine an unknown gas from its spectra. The second part of the lab is to observe the reactions of dierent metallic elements with re. This data is then used to determine two unknown elements from their ame characteristics.

Observations and Data

Part 1 - Spectroscope (drawings attached)
Natural Light

The natural light was relatively cool in color tempurature. In the spectrometer, there was a blended spread of colors from 4.25 to 7. It went from dark red to red to orange to yellow to green to blue and then to purple.
Articial Light

The articial light was warmer in color tempurature than the natural light. With the spectrometer, there were 5 distinct bands of light: a red at the 6.25, yellow at the 6, green at the 5.5, teal at the 5, and purple at the 4.5.
Hydrogen

When charged, the hydrogen glowed a redish pink. In the spectrometer, there were two very distinct lines at the 6.75 and 5 marks. At the 6.75, the line was red, and at the 5, green.
Helium

To the naked eye, the helium glowed a dim light pink. The spectrometers showed lines on the meter, but they were so faint that the group could not record them accurately.

Unknown C

To the naked eye, C glowed the brightest out of all the gases. It glowed a very bright dark orange. In the spectroscope, it had many visible lines, with four of them being the predominant colors; red, orange, yellow, and green. The bands went from 5.5 to 6.75 on the meter.
Part 2 - Flame Tests

Compound KCl BaCl2 CaCl2 Sr(NO3)2 NaCl LiCl CuCl ?A? ?B?

Metal K Ba Ca Sr Na Li Cu ?A? ?B?

Colours Observed Blue, orange, pink Pale yellow dark orange pure red bright orange dark pink light green pure red bright orange

Conclusion
Through this lab, the group members learned to use the spectrometer to measure bands of light. Using this spectrometer, the group learned about dierent types of light and gases. For example, it was observed that natural light displays an array of colors in instead of just some of the bands like other types of light do. In the ame tests, dierent metals were learned about through their interactions with ames. These metals reacted with the ames to make the ames dier in color depending on the chemical used. For example, when burned, Strontium (Sr) produces a very pure-red ame while Potassium (K) produced a ame that had the colors blue, orange and pink in it. The unknown element C was determined by the group to be neon (Ne). This answer was produced by analyzing the data on hand and comparing it with known data from other sources. When charged, neon produces a very bright red color, which is what C did. In the spectrometer, C produced many dierent lines with 4 predominant colors. In other sources, neon was described as having a line emission spectrum with the same characteristics as C; many lines, predominant colors of red, orange, yellow and green. The two unknown metallic elements were found to be Strontium for A and Sodium for B. These were found rather simply by comparing the color that the unknowns produced and comparing it with the known data that was observed in the rst part of the experiment. Unknown A burned with a bright pure-red ame, the same ame as Strontium (Sr). Unknown B burned with a bright orange ame, with Sodium (Na) being the same. Overall, the lab was a success.