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.

Guide to the Spectrum Tool

Now that you have viewed some different sources with your spectroscope, we introduce the online Spectrum Tool, which is designed to connect what you see in a spectroscope with graphs of spectra that scientists use to represent light sources.

Spectrum Tool Guide. Follow the tutorial (below) for an introduction to the Spectrum Tool.

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)

This is the Spectrum Tool. You will use the Spectrum Tool to compare a spectrum image to its spectrum graph. You will also plot spectrum graphs of your own from the spectra that you observe.