Exploring with the spectrometer
Emma and Peter Woolliams (January 2006)
What is it?
A spectrometer is a device that splits light into its spectrum – it shows you the frequencies
(wavelengths) of electromagnetic radiation that the light source contains. The numbers tell you the
wavelength of light – the shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency. Blue light has a
wavelength of around 400 nm, and red light has a wavelength of between 600 nm and 700 nm. One
nanometre (nm) is one billionth of a metre (0.000 000 001 m = 10-9 m) or one millionth of a
millimetre.
How do I use it?
Make sure it’s the way up shown here. There’s a
small slit at the point where the light goes in (top
right) and there’s a thin film and lens at the point
where your eye goes (bottom).
1. Look through the eye-hole towards the slit and
make sure you can see the light source you want
to examine brightly in the slit. This will make
sure you’re lined up with the slit.
2. Without moving the spectrometer, the light
source, or your head, move your eye to the left
to look at the spectrum.
3. If you don’t see a clear spectrum, try moving
closer to the light source and move your eye to
double check that the light is going into the slit.
Tips
• If you have more than one light source on in
the room (e.g. there’s sunlight, low energy
bulbs and tungsten bulbs all on) then you
might get a confusing mixture of spectra.
• Start with some bright light sources: they
are easier to see!
What can I look at? What will I see?
All the photos on the next page were taken in a flat on a Sunday morning. The photos were taken
with a digital camera with a lens approximately the same size as the eye-piece at the eye entrance.
The pictures were tricky to take: we had two people to hold the spectrometer and camera, and a
tripod or two!
Source Spectrum Examples Notes
Low energy light bulbs and ‘strip lights’ contain mercury
vapour. An electric current passing through the vapour
causes the mercury atoms to ‘ring’ like a bell and emit light
with just a few different frequencies.
• You can see some of these frequencies as individual
lines in the spectra on the left.
• The atoms also emit ultra violet light that is absorbed
by a chemical on the inner wall of the tube. This
chemical, (called a phosphor because it generally
contains the element phosphorous) then emits light of
a different colour. A mix of phosphors is used to give
either a ‘warm’ pink light or a ‘cooler’ blue light
Very little light is emitted in the infra red (which we can’t
see) and so these fluorescent lights emit more light for a
given energy input than a normal light bulb.
This is a “tungsten halogen” lamp – it’s like a traditional
light bulb only smaller and brighter. The lamp works by
heating a filament of wire made from the element tungsten.
The full spectrum – all colours – is seen because this works
by heat. The tungsten atoms are too close together to
“ring” like a bell.
It is definitely worth looking at some bright sunlight falling
on a white wall or on a piece of white paper. You’ll see a full
spectrum – the Sun is hot – but you’ll also see dark lines
(e.g. the one just below 490 nm). These are caused by
cooler gas on the outside of the Sun absorbing the hot light
from the Sun to make the gas atoms ‘ring’ – so that bit of
DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY! light is missing from the spectrum of the hot Sun
underneath. You can see this more clearly with your eye
IT CAN PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR than with the camera – you should see lots of lines the
EYESIGHT! camera can’t detect.
Other ideas: Sodium (orange) street lights. Other (whiter) types of street light. Neon lights in shop windows. The lights on your TV or other electrical
applicances. Your computer screen with a white /red/blue/green background. Candles (with and without salt)… What else can you think of?!