Light Spectra

This week we learned what light is.
Light is formed out of the energy from an electron.
You get this energy when an electron of one atom changes its energy levels by jumping from one level to the other and then back. During this process the electron contains energy which it absorbs when it goes back to its original level. This energy is called a "photon". A photon is light.
The main character of light is its wavelength. Because the energy that the electron transports differs we can see different colors.
This is why a shorter wavelength is a darker color and a higher wavelength is a lighter color. Ultraviolet which has much more energy than for instance infra red. This is why it is dangerous to go to a tanning bed. Because ultraviolet has a lot of energy is can enter your cell nucleus and cause cancer.
The frequency of the wavelength is also important The frequency says how fast the amplitude of one wave is. The unit of the frequency is Hertz. It is defined as: Times of oscillation divided by the time it takes.
On the following picture you can see some of the colors we can see. We took different elements (gases) and looked through a spectroscope and then we saw the following colors:

I learned this week that you can separate the colors we see by watching through a spectroscope and i learned that the amplitude and the wavelength is an important role in light. Some things I have learned in Germany, too.
I liked the experiments we made a lot because they were fun and it is kind of exciting what gases are made up of.
By Andre Simons