Using Mathematica To See The World in A Different Light

31/1/2021 Using Mathematica to see the world in a different light - part I - Online Technical Discussion Groups Wolfram Community
Products & Services Technologies Solutions Learning & Support Company Search
Join Sign In
Dashboard Groups People
GROUPS: Staff Picks Data Science Optics Physics Signal Processing Mathematica Wolfram Language Connected Devices Know-How
Events & Media
Using Mathematica to see the world in a different light - part I

19 Marco Thiel, University of Aberdeen - Dept. of Physics/Mathematics Posted 5 years ago
11001 Views | 4 Replies | 31 Total Likes Follow this post |
The international year of light has just drawn to an end. From 4-6 February the closing ceremony took place in Merida,
Yukatan.
GeoGraphics[GeoMarker[Entity["City", {"Merida", "Yucatan", "Mexico"}]], GeoRange -> Quantity[3000, "Kilomete
Feedback
The international Year of Light was a global initiative of the United Nations to celebrate light and light based technologies.
Mathematica's built-in Wikipedia data contains detailed information on the Year of Light; here is the first sentence of the
article.
TextSentences[WikipediaData["Year of Light"]][[1]]
The International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, 2015 (IYL 2015) is a United Nations
observance that aims to raise awareness of the achievements of light science and its applications, and its
importance to humankind.
I am planning to write three posts to show how the Wolfram Language, its wealth of data, and connected devices can be used
to keep the year of light alive at your home. In this first part, I will use a spectrometer, connect it to the Wolfram Language,
and try to "see the world in a different light". It turns out that the Wolfram Language will be as important as the hardware for
this project.
Light is key to life on earth and sight is a key sense; most of the information our brains process comes from our vision. When
the first organism developed primitive vision, that was an enormous evolutionary advantage, allowing them to escape
https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/789911?p_p_auth=cN81k9DP 1/22
preditors and localise prey. Light plays a crucial role in our modern lifes - most likely the information on this very website was
delivered to you using optical fibres and light. Light also allows us to study everything from the smallest particles up to the
farthest reaches of the universe.
In the 17th century Sir Isaac Newton introduced the word "spectrum" into optics, referring to the range of colours observed
whey light passed through a prism. Today spectrometers are used in many scientific labs to study everything from molecules
to the light of stars. In this Community several posts have described the construction of spectrometers and raspberry pi
spectrometers. For this blog I will use a commercial, small spectrometer, the C12666MA Micro-Spectrometer, that attaches to
an Arduino Uno. Hooking it up to the Arduino is trivial as the pins nicely align.
I will first upload the following code to the Arduino:
Feedback
// This code is a modified from the original sketch from Peter Jansen
// https://github.com/tricorderproject/arducordermini
// This code removes the external ADC and uses the internal ADC instead.
// also this code just prints the output to csv output to the terminal.
#define SPEC_GAIN A0
//#define SPEC_EOS NA
#define SPEC_ST A1
#define SPEC_CLK A2
#define SPEC_VIDEO A3
#define WHITE_LED A4
#define LASER_404 A5
#define SPEC_CHANNELS 256

uint16_t data[SPEC_CHANNELS];
void setup() {
//pinMode(SPEC_EOS, INPUT);
pinMode(SPEC_GAIN, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SPEC_ST, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SPEC_CLK, OUTPUT);
pinMode(WHITE_LED, OUTPUT);
pinMode(LASER_404, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(WHITE_LED, LOW);
digitalWrite(LASER_404, LOW);
//digitalWrite(WHITE_LED, HIGH);
//digitalWrite(LASER_404, HIGH);
digitalWrite(SPEC_GAIN, HIGH);
digitalWrite(SPEC_ST, HIGH);
digitalWrite(SPEC_CLK, HIGH);
digitalWrite(SPEC_GAIN, HIGH); //LOW Gain
//digitalWrite(SPEC_GAIN, LOW); //High Gain
//Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.begin(115200);
}
void readSpectrometer()
{
//int delay_time = 35;
Products & Services Technologies
// delay per half clock (in microseconds).
Solutions Learning & Support
This ultimately conrols the integra
Company Search
int delay_time = 1; // delay per half clock (in microseconds). This ultimately conrols the integratio
int idx = 0;
int read_time = 35; // Amount of time that the analogRead() procedure takes (in microseconds) (differ
int intTime = 5;
int accumulateMode = false;
int i;
// Step 1: start leading clock pulses

for (int i = 0; i < SPEC_CHANNELS; i++) {
digitalWrite(SPEC_CLK, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(delay_time);
}
// Step 2: Send start pulse to signal start of integration/light collection

digitalWrite(SPEC_ST, LOW);
// Step 3: Integration time -- sample for a period of time determined by the intTime parameter
int blockTime = delay_time * 8;
long int numIntegrationBlocks = ((long)intTime * (long)1000) / (long)blockTime;
for (int i = 0; i < numIntegrationBlocks; i++) {
// Four clocks per pixel
Feedback
// First block of 2 clocks -- measurement
}
// Step 4: Send start pulse to signal end of integration/light collection

digitalWrite(SPEC_ST, LOW);
// Step 5: Read Data 2 (this is the actual read, since the spectrometer has now sampled data)
idx = 0;
// Four clocks per pixel
// First block of 2 clocks -- measurement
// Analog value is valid on low transition
if (accumulateMode == false) {
data[idx] = analogRead(SPEC_VIDEO);
} else {
data[idx] += analogRead(SPEC_VIDEO);
}
idx += 1;
if (delay_time > read_time) delayMicroseconds(delay_time - read_time); // Read takes about 135uSec
// Second block of 2 clocks -- idle

}
// Step 6: trailing clock pulses

}
}
void print_data()
{
Feedback
for (int i = 0; i < SPEC_CHANNELS; i++)
{
Serial.print(data[i]);
Serial.print(',');
}
Serial.print("\n");
}
void loop()
{
// digitalWrite(LASER_404, HIGH);
// readSpectrometer();
// digitalWrite(LASER_404, LOW);
// print_data();
// delay(10);
// digitalWrite(WHITE_LED, HIGH);
// readSpectrometer();
// digitalWrite(WHITE_LED, LOW);
// print_data();
// delay(10);
readSpectrometer();
print_data();
delay(10);
}
The Arduino code is quite long and I first thought to only attach it to the post, but there is a particular line which is important. In
the "void readSpectrometer()" part there is the line
int intTime = 5;
which allows you to set the integration time, i.e. the exposure time. That is a very important parameter to get optimal results.
With the new features of the Wolfram Language and in particular with the Arduino Device Connection it is possible to adjust
the exposure from within the Wolfram Language code. For this post this is not really necessary, so I will save that for another
day.
Connecting the Arduino-Spectrometer duo to Mathematica is trivial. Here I connect it to an OSX system.
mySpectrometer = DeviceOpen["Serial", {Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*",

Products & Services {"/dev"}, Infinity]][[1]],
Technologies Solutions "BaudRate" ->
Learning & Support Company Search
This piece of code
Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*", {"/dev"}, Infinity]][[1]]
facilitates the connection as it detects the correct device automatically. We can now start collecting data like so:
data = Table[Pause[2]; ToExpression /@ StringSplit[FromCharacterCode[SplitBy[DeviceReadBuffer[mySpectrometer
This data aquisition code actually measures 6 spectra and pauses for 2 seconds between individual measurements. These
repeated measurements decrease the noise of the measurements. The measurement procedure is very straight foward. You
point the spectrometer at an object and execute the data aquisition. Let's fist look at the spectrum of a fluorescent light bulb.
ListLinePlot[N@Mean[Select[data, Length[#] == 256 &]], PlotRange -> All]
Feedback
There are several peaks that we will try to understand a little bit later. The x-axis shows 256 bins which represent the different
colours, i.e. frequencies. The y-axis shows the count, i.e. the intensity of that frequency band. In oder to be able to interpret
the results we first need to calibrate the spectrometer. Here is a link to a table which contains calibration information for
various versions of the spectrometer. It turns out that the calibration is performed using a 5th order polynomial; the repective
coefficients are given in the calibration table. For my particular spectrometer I obtain:
a0 = 3.170083173*10^2;
b1 = 2.39519817;
b2 = -8.618615345*10^(-4);
b3 = -5.978279712*10^(-6);
b4 = 8.585352787*10^(-9);
b5 = -2.048534811*10^(-12);
wavelength[x_] := a0 + b1 x + b2 x^2 + b3 x^3 + b4*x^4 + b5 x^5
Here is a plot of the calibration curve:
Plot[{wavelength[x]}, {x, 0, 256}]
It transforms the number of the bin to the corresponding wavelength. We can not plot the spectrum with the correct x-axis.
datacalibrated = Transpose@{wavelength /@ Range[256], N@Mean[Select[data,

Products & Services Length[#Solutions
Technologies ] == 256 &]]};
Learning & Support Company Search
ListLinePlot[datacalibrated, PlotRange -> All]
This is much better. This is how a professional spectrum of a fluorescent light bulb looks like:
Feedback
which is taken from the Wikipedia commons. Here is a list of the peaks and what element they correspond to:
We clearly see the peaks for Mercury, Terbium and Europium. Wolfram|Alpha has a wealth of information about spectral lines
Feedback
and we can use the following line to get it.
WolframAlpha["spectral lines mercury"]
The two dominant lines here are the one at 4046.565 Angstrom and at 4358.335 Angstrom. They correspond to our lines at
about 405 nm and 436 nm. Unfortunately, I have failed to extract a list of all relevant spectral lines from Wolfram|Alpha.
Let's try to spice our representation of the spectrum up a bit. It would be nice to have a visual cue as to the colour the different
wavelengths correspond to. Mathematica and the Wolfram Language have everything built in to make this task really easy:
ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][#] & /@ datacalibrated[[All, 1]]

We can now merge this into a band of colours that we can plot with the spectrum.
Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibrated[[i, 1]]], Rectangle[{datacalibrated[[i, 1]], 0}
If we plot this together things start being easier to interpret.
Show[ListLinePlot[datacalibrated, PlotRange -> All], Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibr

Rectangle[{datacalibrated[[i, 1]], 10}, {datacalibrated[[i + 1, 1]], 40}]}, {i, 1, Length[datacalibrate
Feedback
Now there are two more things I want to tweak. First of all there is this off-set of 54; that is a "zero count", i.e. I obtain at least
54 even if there is no signal so I need to subtract that. This number depends on the spectrometer that you have. On a second
one I have got that value is different. Also, I would like the lightcurve itself to reflect the colour. The following code achieves
that:
Show[ListLinePlot[Evaluate@(Plus[{0., -54.}, #] & /@ datacalibrated),

PlotRange -> {All, {-30, All}}, Joined -> True, Frame -> True,
ColorFunction -> (Blend["VisibleSpectrum", #1* Differences[datacalibrated[[All, 1]][[{1, -1}]]][[1]] +
datacalibrated[[1, 1]]] &), Filling -> Axis, LabelStyle -> Directive[Black, Bold, Medium],
FrameLabel -> {"Wavelength (nm)", "Intensity"}], Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibrat
Rectangle[{datacalibrated[[i, 1]], -30}, {datacalibrated[[i + 1, 1]], -10}]}, {i, 1, Length[datacalibra
To identify the spectral lines it is useful to identify maxima of the curve. The following function helps to achieve that:
localMaxPositions =
Compile[{{pts, _Real, 1}},
Module[{result = Table[0, {Length[pts]}], i = 1, ctr = 0}, For[i = 2, i < Length[pts], i++,
If[pts[[i - 1]] < pts[[i]] && pts[[i + 1]] < pts[[i]],result[[++ctr]] = i]];Take[result, ctr]]];
We can now locate the maxima and plot that on the curve:
Feedback
dplot = ListLinePlot[datacalibrated, PlotRange -> All];
maxs = ListPlot[Select[Nest[#[[localMaxPositions[#[[All, 2]]]]] &, datacalibrated, 1], #[[2]] > 58.33 &], Pl
Show[{dplot, maxs}]
The following function produces a list of the positons of the maxima:
Select[Nest[#[[localMaxPositions[#[[All, 2]]]]] &, datacalibrated, 1], #[[2]] > 58.33 &][[All, 1]]
(*{366.873694406445`,406.4710188519941`,436.1860721777116`,489.\
5449068238321`,544.8439203380104`,587.3854766583466`,610.\
7844904587837`,668.0095922519685`,688.8768717778272`,707.\
3639428495288`}*)
It turns out that there is a packages which contains information about spectral lines, but the elements that we are interested in
(Hg, Te, Eu) are not in the database. For elements that are in the database we can compare the measured lines to the ones in
the database:
<< ResonanceAbsorptionLines`
ElementAbsorptionMap[Na]
What we can do, however, is to generate - or simulate- an approximatio of the spectral lines we measure. There is a
discussion on Stackexchange that shows how to plot an emission spectrum. The following lines are taken from that
discussion.
spec[wavelength_, width_] := Flatten[Table[{{x, 0, x}, {x, 1, x}}, {x, wavelength - width, wavelength + widt
ListDensityPlot[
spec[#, 1] & /@
Select[Nest[#[[localMaxPositions[#[[All, 2]]]]] &, datacalibrated,
1], #[[2]] > 59.33 &][[All, 1]],
ColorFunction -> ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"],
ColorFunctionScaling -> False, AspectRatio -> .3,
PlotRange -> {{300, 800}},
FrameTicks -> {Automatic, None, None, None},
FrameTicksStyle -> White, Frame -> True, Background -> Black]
Feedback
Case Studies
Blue sky
I now measure the spectrum of the blue sky. The measurement was taken late in the year and the sky wasn't the "bluest of
blues", but we can still make out some interesting features.
mySpectrometer =
DeviceOpen[
"Serial", {Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*", {"/dev"}, Infinity]][[1]],
"BaudRate" -> 115200}];
datasky =
Table[Pause[2];
ToExpression /@
StringSplit[
FromCharacterCode[
SplitBy[DeviceReadBuffer[mySpectrometer], # == 10 &][[-2]]],
","], {i, 6}];
a0 = 3.170083173*10^2;
b1 = 2.39519817;
b2 = -8.618615345*10^(-4);
b3 = -5.978279712*10^(-6);
b4 = 8.585352787*10^(-9);
b5 = -2.048534811*10^(-12);
wavelength[x_] := a0 + b1 x + b2 x^2 + b3 x^3 + b4*x^4 + b5 x^5;
datacalibratedsky =
Transpose@{wavelength /@ Range[256], N@Mean[Select[datasky, Length[#] == 256 &]]};
Show[ListLinePlot[Evaluate@(Plus[{0., -54.}, #] & /@ datacalibratedsky),
PlotRange -> {All, {-30, All}}, Joined -> True, Frame -> True, ColorFunction -> (Blend["VisibleSpectrum",
Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibratedsky[[i, 1]]], Rectangle[{datacalibratedsky[[i, 1
The spectrum clearly shows the "blue" in the sky. It turns out that the marked double dip corresponds to absorption by water.
Lasers
Using exactly the same code we can now analyse the spectrum of different lasers - red, green and blue. We can clearly see
that the red and green lasers have a very narrow peak within the red and green spectral bands, whereas the blue laser has a
much broader peak. This is probably related to how blue laser light is generateed in cheap laser pointers.
Feedback
Here is how the spectrum of a red laser would look like:
ListDensityPlot[
spec[#, 1] & /@
Select[Nest[#[[localMaxPositions[#[[All, 2]]]]] &, datacalibratedlaserr, 1], #[[2]] > 59.33 &][[All, 1]],
ColorFunction -> ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"], ColorFunctionScaling -> False, AspectRatio -> .3,
PlotRange -> {{400, 800}}, FrameTicks -> {Automatic, None, None, None},
FrameTicksStyle -> White, Frame -> True, Background -> Black]
Absorption spectrum - green leaf
Up to now we have maily discussed emission spectra - apart from some features of the blue sky example. Let's now generate
an absorption spectrum. In an emission spectrum a material actively emits radiation/light. In an absoprtion spectrum light that
passes through the material.
In order to produce a good absorption spectrum we would ideally use a light source that produces a strong continuous
spectrum. When I conducted the leaf experiment I only had a very cheap lamp which is usually used by doctors for initial
examinations:
Feedback
I pointed the lamp at a green leaf and measured the light that shone through. The problem was that the lamp did produce a
very poor spectrum heavily biased towards the red frequency range. So in this case study I will first measure the emission
spectrum of the lamp and then normalise the absorption spectrum of the leaf. Let's start with the lamp.
mySpectrometer =
DeviceOpen[
"Serial", {Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*", {"/dev"}, Infinity]][[1]],
"BaudRate" -> 115200}];
datalamp =
Table[Pause[2];
ToExpression /@
StringSplit[
FromCharacterCode[
SplitBy[DeviceReadBuffer[mySpectrometer], # == 10 &][[-2]]],
","], {i, 6}];
a0 = 3.170083173*10^2;
b1 = 2.39519817;
b2 = -8.618615345*10^(-4);
b3 = -5.978279712*10^(-6);
b4 = 8.585352787*10^(-9);
b5 = -2.048534811*10^(-12);
wavelength[x_] := a0 + b1 x + b2 x^2 + b3 x^3 + b4*x^4 + b5 x^5;
datacalibratedlamp =
Transpose@{wavelength /@ Range[256], N@Mean[Select[datalamp, Length[#] == 256 &]]};
Show[ListLinePlot[Evaluate@(Plus[{0., -54.}, #] & /@ datacalibratedlamp),
PlotRange -> {All, {-30, All}}, Joined -> True, Frame -> True, ColorFunction -> (Blend["VisibleSpectrum",
LabelStyle -> Directive[Black, Bold, Medium],
FrameLabel -> {"Wavelength (nm)", "Intensity"}],
Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibratedlamp[[i, 1]]],
Rectangle[{datacalibratedlamp[[i,1]], -30}, {datacalibratedlamp[[i + 1, 1]], -10}]}, {i, 1,Length[datacalib
The spectrum is clearly biased to the red freqencies. In the blue/ultraviolet range the light source produces to little output that
it will be impossible to determine a reasonable absorption spectrum there. Let's go on to measure the absorption of the leaf.
absorptionleaf =
Transpose[{datacalibratedleaf[[All, 1]], (datacalibratedleaf[[All, 2]]/datacalibratedlamp[[All, 2]])}];
Show[ListLinePlot[Evaluate@(Plus[{0., 0.}, #] & /@ absorptionleaf), PlotRange -> {All, {-0.3, 1}}, Joined ->
ColorFunction -> (Blend["VisibleSpectrum", #1*Differences[absorptionleaf[[All, 1]][[{1, -1}]]][[1]] + abso
LabelStyle -> Directive[Black, Bold, Medium], FrameLabel -> {"Wavelength (nm)", "Intensity"}], Graphics[Ta
Feedback
The absorption in the red frequency range stems from chlorophyll; chlorophyll also absorbs in the 400-450nm range which is
hard to se here, because of our poor light source. The dip at around 500nm is carotenoids. You can compare that to the
spectrum of leaves on this website.
"Black body radiation" - an old fashioned light bulb
The final example will be of an old fashioned, small light bulb.
I will use a bench supply to slowly increase the voltage and the current. The filament will go from a red glowing colour to
brighter "whiter" colour, but we will see that even for the highest voltage of 12V the spectrum will still be quite different from
"white", i.e. uniform. The code is just the same as above. I save all plots for voltages 1V to 12V with increments of 1V in one
variable:
specall = {spec1V, spec2V, spec3V, spec4V, spec5V, spec6V, spec7V, spec8V, spec9V, spec10V, spec11V, spec12V
This can be easily plotted like so:
Grid[Partition[specall, 4]]
Feedback
We can also animate this:
ListAnimate[specall, AnimationRunTime -> 10]
Note that from 9V onwards the spectrum has max-ed out. When I measured the spectra I took note of the voltage and the
corresponding current:
voltageamp = {{1, 0.04}, {2, 0.06}, {3, 0.07}, {4, 0.08}, {5, 0.1}, {6, 0.11}, {7, 0.12}, {8, 0.13}, {9, 0.1
I can now represent that with the regression line.
Show[ListPlot[voltageamp, AxesLabel -> {"Volts", "Amps"}, LabelStyle -> Directive[Bold, Medium]],

Plot[Evaluate@Fit[voltageamp, {1, x}, x], {x, 0, 12}, PlotStyle -> Red]]
Note the nearly linear increase in current as the voltage increases. Finally, I took photos as the voltage increased.
We now add a little bit of motion to the voltage amp graph:
figvoltsamp =
Evaluate@Table[Show[ListPlot[voltageamp, AxesLabel -> {"Volts", "Amps"}, LabelStyle -> Directive[Bold, Med
Epilog -> {PointSize[Large], Green, Point[voltageamp[[i]]]}], Plot[Evaluate@Fit[voltageamp, {1, x}, x]
Feedback
To finish everything off, we can now animate this:
ListAnimate[GraphicsRow[#, ImageSize -> Full] & /@ Transpose[{specall, bulb, figvoltsamp}]]
If we were to assume that this is the radiation of a black body, we could use Planck's law:
FormulaData[{"PlanckRadiationLaw", "Wavelength"}]
We could plot this as a function of temperature and wavelength
equation =
FormulaData[{"PlanckRadiationLaw", "Wavelength"}, {"T" -> Quantity[t, "Kelvins"],
"\[Lambda]" -> Quantity[l, "Nanometers"]}];
Plot3D[Quantity[1.191042*^29, ("Pascals")/("Seconds")]/(-1.`16.255 l^5 + 2.71828^(1.438*^7/(l t)) l^5), {l,
AxesLabel -> {"wavelength", "temperature", "luminosity"}, LabelStyle -> Directive[Bold, Medium], ImageSize
We can also write a little loop to calculate for which wavelength the maximum for different temperatures is reached.
results = {}; Monitor[

Table[equation2 = FormulaData[{"PlanckRadiationLaw",
"Wavelength"}, {"T" -> Quantity[t, "Kelvins"], "\[Lambda]" -> Quantity[l, "Nanometers"]}];
root = FindRoot[D[equation2[[2, 2]], l] == 0, {l, 700}, MaxIterations -> Infinity];
AppendTo[results, {t, root}], {t, 2800, 3400, 100}], t]
This gives the following table:
Feedback
Grid[Join[{{"Temperature K", "\[Lambda] at max"}}, Transpose[{results[[All, 1]], results[[All, 2, -1, 2]]}]]
We can plot the relationship between maxium and temperature.
ListLinePlot[Transpose[{results[[All, 1]], results[[All, 2, -1, 2]]}],Mesh -> Full, MeshStyle -> Red,
AxesLabel -> {"Temperature", "wavelength at max"}, LabelStyle -> Directive[Bold, Medium], ImageSize -> Larg
This allows us in principle to estimate the temperature of the filament. Note, that for 8V the maximum is at about 750nm. The
graph shows that this corresponds to a temperature higher than 3400K, which is too high for such a small light bulb. So there
is still quite some room for improvement... The principle of temperature measurement, by the colour of the sample is realistic.
There are many further projects one could think of. I suppose that with a decent telescope it should be possible to analyse the
light of stars for example. Also, the spectrometer works nicely on a Raspberry Pi. It should be quite straight forward to take
measurements of say the sky over the day and see how the dominant colours change.
Cheers,
Marco
Reply | Flag
4 Replies Sort By: Replies Likes Recent
Vitaliy Kaurov, WOLFRAM Research

Posted 5 years ago
5
@Marco Thiel, amazing post as usual, and we excitingly adding it to Staff Picks! At some point you said:
I have failed to extract a list of all relevant spectral lines from Wolfram|Alpha
Did you mean the following code?
mercuryLINES = WolframAlpha["spectral lines mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}];

TableForm[Rest[#[[1, 1]]], TableHeadings -> {None, First[#[[1, 1]]]}] &@mercuryLINES
Feedback
You do not need to know the syntax of WolframAlpha function, just access it interactively (as explained here: Data Formats
in Wolfram|Alpha):
Feedback
Reply | Flag
Marco Thiel, University of Aberdeen - Dept. of Physics/Mathematics

Posted 5 years ago
4
Dear @Vitaliy Kaurov ,
thank you very much for your kind and encouraging words. I am glad that you liked the post.
I was, in fact, aware that one can use Wolfram|Alpha and then click on the more button in the subpod. My problem is that
the data I managed to download appears to be incomplete. If we use Wolfram|Alpha to display the spectrum of say
mercury it looks like this:
There are spectral lines all over the visual range from 4000-7500 Angstroms. If I go to the pod content I only get the first
lines. I can click on "More" and I get some more lines, but no matter how often I click on "More" I only get 21 lines:
lines=WolframAlpha["Spectral lines mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}, PodStat
So in a table this looks like this:
lines[[1, 1]] // TableForm
Feedback
The last lines I download are at about 4700 Angstroms. That means that a large part of the visual spectrum is not covered
in the list I download. I have tried various modifications of the Wolfram|Alpha request, but nothing downloaded all the
visible lines. This is not a problem for elements that only have "few" spectral lines, but is more of a problem for those, like
mercury, terbium etc that have lots of them. I am not terribly familiar with Wolfram|Alpha syntax and do not know whether
there is a way to extract a list of all lines. I am aware that many of the lines are quite weak. Wolfram Alpha also has
information on the intensity of the lines:
linesplus = WolframAlpha["spectrum mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}, PodStat

linesplus[[1, 1]] // TableForm
The transition probability tells us which lines would be strong, i.e. strong enough to be seen with a cheap spectrometer; it
appears that only the ones with transition probabilities of about 107 are really easy to detect. I have also noted that the
same requests I used above for mercury do not work equally well for all elements, say terbium.
The objective would be to input a spectrum, like the ones I have measured in the post. They I would like to compare that to
a database of known spectra and program something that attempts to guess at what is contained in the sample. I have
tried importing data from some spectral databases, like this one or this one or this one , but nothing really worked well
enough. It would be nice to be able to detect these components from the spectrum. In a project we are doing here, we try
to send the spectral data to mobile phones. If we could use CloudDeploy on these platforms, perhaps even on the Apple
Watch, that would be nice.
We have seen many fantastic posts here where devices were hooked up to Mathematica and where data was read. Most
of the time Mathematica is "only" used to represent data, stream the data online, read it from other deices etc. I wonder
whether: (i) the Wolfram Language's abilities could be used even more to improve the data from poor devices, e.g. perform
a sort of deconvolution on the spectra I got or do some tricks to mathematically improve the measurements, and (ii) I am
looking for examples of how the Wolfram Language adds substantially to the analysis of the data. Being able to
decompose the spectrum into the components would be a nice case study.
As I said, I will try to post at least two further examples and I hope that I'll be able to show how much the Wolfram
Language can improve the data from poor sensors and perhaps more...
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Best wishes,
Marco
Reply | Flag
Moderation Team, WOLFRAM

Posted 5 years ago
1
- another post of yours has been selected for the Staff Picks group, congratulations !
Feedback
We are happy to see you at the tops of the "Featured Contributor" board. Thank you for your wonderful contributions, and
please keep them coming!
Reply | Flag
Bernat Espigulé, Universitat de Barcelona

Posted 5 years ago
2
Awesome post, Marco! I'm looking forward to reading your other two posts to "see the world in a different light".
Reply | Flag
Feedback
Reply to this discussion
Add Notebook
Reply Preview
Attachments
Add a file to this post
Follow this discussion
Publish or Discard
Be respectful. Review our Community Guidelines to understand your role and responsibilities. Community Terms of Use
Products Services Learning Public Resources Company

Wolfram|One Technical Consulting Wolfram Language Wolfram|Alpha Events
Mathematica Corporate Consulting Documentation Demonstrations Project About Wolfram
Wolfram|Alpha Notebook Wolfram Language Resource System Careers
Introductory Book
Edition Connected Devices Project Contact
For Customers Fast Introduction for
Programming Lab Wolfram Data Drop
Online Store Programmers
Wolfram|Alpha Pro Wolfram + Raspberry Pi
Product Registration Fast Introduction for Math Connect
Mobile Apps Students Wolfram Science
Product Downloads Wolfram Community
Feedback
Finance Platform Webinars & Training Computer-Based Math
Service Plans Benefits Wolfram Blog
SystemModeler Wolfram U
User Portal MathWorld Newsletter
Wolfram Player Summer Programs
Your Account Hackathons
Wolfram Engine Videos Computational Thinking
WolframScript Books VIEW ALL...
Wolfram Workbench Support
Volume & Site Licensing Support FAQ
Enterprise Private Cloud Customer Service
VIEW ALL... Contact Support
© 2021 Wolfram. All rights reserved. Legal & Privacy Policy | Site Map | WolframAlpha.com | WolframCloud.com

Using Mathematica To See The World in A Different Light

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Using Mathematica To See The World in A Different Light

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

31/1/2021 Using Mathematica to see the world in a different light - part I - Online Technical Discussion Groups Wolfram Community

Dashboard Groups People

Events & Media

Using Mathematica to see the world in a different light - part I

11001 Views | 4 Replies | 31 Total Likes Follow this post |

GeoGraphics[GeoMarker[Entity["City", {"Merida", "Yucatan", "Mexico"}]], GeoRange -> Quantity[3000, "Kilomete

I will first upload the following code to the Arduino:

#define SPEC_CHANNELS 256

// Step 1: start leading clock pulses

// Step 2: Send start pulse to signal start of integration/light collection

// Step 4: Send start pulse to signal end of integration/light collection

// Second block of 2 clocks -- idle

// Step 6: trailing clock pulses

mySpectrometer = DeviceOpen["Serial", {Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*",

This piece of code

Quiet[FileNames["tty.usb*", {"/dev"}, Infinity]][[1]]

data = Table[Pause[2]; ToExpression /@ StringSplit[FromCharacterCode[SplitBy[DeviceReadBuffer[mySpectrometer

ListLinePlot[N@Mean[Select[data, Length[#] == 256 &]], PlotRange -> All]

Here is a plot of the calibration curve:

Plot[{wavelength[x]}, {x, 0, 256}]

datacalibrated = Transpose@{wavelength /@ Range[256], N@Mean[Select[data,

WolframAlpha["spectral lines mercury"]

ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][#] & /@ datacalibrated[[All, 1]]

Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibrated[[i, 1]]], Rectangle[{datacalibrated[[i, 1]], 0}

If we plot this together things start being easier to interpret.

Show[ListLinePlot[datacalibrated, PlotRange -> All], Graphics[Table[{ColorData["VisibleSpectrum"][datacalibr

Show[ListLinePlot[Evaluate@(Plus[{0., -54.}, #] & /@ datacalibrated),

The following function produces a list of the positons of the maxima:

Absorption spectrum - green leaf

"Black body radiation" - an old fashioned light bulb

The final example will be of an old fashioned, small light bulb.

This can be easily plotted like so:

ListAnimate[specall, AnimationRunTime -> 10]

I can now represent that with the regression line.

Show[ListPlot[voltageamp, AxesLabel -> {"Volts", "Amps"}, LabelStyle -> Directive[Bold, Medium]],

We now add a little bit of motion to the voltage amp graph:

ListAnimate[GraphicsRow[#, ImageSize -> Full] & /@ Transpose[{specall, bulb, figvoltsamp}]]

We could plot this as a function of temperature and wavelength

results = {}; Monitor[

This gives the following table:

We can plot the relationship between maxium and temperature.

4 Replies Sort By: Replies Likes Recent

Vitaliy Kaurov, WOLFRAM Research

Did you mean the following code?

mercuryLINES = WolframAlpha["spectral lines mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}];

Marco Thiel, University of Aberdeen - Dept. of Physics/Mathematics

Dear @Vitaliy Kaurov ,

lines=WolframAlpha["Spectral lines mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}, PodStat

So in a table this looks like this:

lines[[1, 1]] // TableForm

linesplus = WolframAlpha["spectrum mercury", {{"Lines:AtomicSpectrumData", 1}, "ComputableData"}, PodStat

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Moderation Team, WOLFRAM

Bernat Espigulé, Universitat de Barcelona

Reply to this discussion

Follow this discussion

Products Services Learning Public Resources Company

You might also like