Making Sense of Spectra

This Spectrum Tool will help you connect the visual color display of a light source's spectrum—like the color image you see in a spectroscope—with a graph of the light’s spectrum.

Draw a Spectrum Part 2: Draw and Reflect

Spectrum Tool. Draw a copy of the graph from your Notebook in the online Spectrum Tool.

Spectrum Notebook. Answer the questions in your Notebook about the spectrum you drew.

  1. Estimate at what wavelength the source is emitting the most amount of light. (At what wavelength is the light the brightest?)
  2. What color is the light at the wavelength where the source is emitting the most light?
  3. Estimate how much light (as a relative value from 0–1 on the y-axis) is being emitted at 0.4 microns (on the x-axis).
  4. Estimate at what wavelength the source is emitting the least amount of light?
Source:
 
Brightness
Full-intensity spectrum backgroundTransparency increases or decreases based on chart intensity, hiding or revealing the background
Left axis ticks
Click here to draw
Spectrum intensity vs wavelength chart, drawn by the user
Bottom axis ticks
Wavelength (microns)
part 1
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