SCHOOLS OF NORTH AMERICA

5A STREET, BINH HUNG WARD, BINH CHANH DICTRICT, HO CHIMINH CITY, VIET NAM

Members in group: John Nguyen Ngoc Khoi

Anna Nguyen Van Anh

PROJECT
The Visible Light _
Jennifer Nguyen Thi Xuan Trang
Ikarus Huynh Kim Bao
Spectrum
Teacher: Mr. Brian Peacock
AC: Mrs. Olive Ngo Thi Viet Tam

2010-2011
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

A. Research Question
- What is the The visible spectrum? And Its applications?
- The theories Of Light And Spectra.
- Origins of Word “Spectrum”.

B. Purpose Of the Project

- Help to understand about The Spectra .
- Explain Phenomenons that relate to The Spectra.

C. Significance Of the Project

The discovery of the spectrum a great influence to the present life. It helps to
explain many interesting phenomena happening around us and is also a tool for
scientists to patent many inventions for life, such as determining the chemical,
manufacturing batteries of light and many other inventions.

FIGURE 1

I. Def inition
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

Noun

spektrəm ˈspektrəm

Plural spectra

ˈspektrə ˈspektrə
Origins

In Latin spectrum means "image" or "apparition", including the meaning "spectre".

Spectral evidence is testimony about what was done by spectres of persons not present
physically, or hearsay evidence about what ghosts or apparitions of Satan said. It was
used to convict a number of persons of witchcraft at Salem, Massachusetts in the late
17th century. The word "spectrum" [Spektrum] was strictly used to designate a ghostly
optical afterimage by Goethe in his Theory of Colors and Schopenhauer in On Vision and
Colors.

Modern meaning in the physical sciences

In the 17th century the word spectrum was introduced into optics, referring to the
range of colors observed when white light was dispersed through a prism. Soon the term
referred to a plot of light intensity or power as a function of frequency or wavelength,
also known as a spectral density.

The term spectrum was soon applied to other waves, such as sound waves, and now
applies to any signal that can be decomposed into frequency components. A spectrum is a
usually 2-dimensional plot, of a compound signal, depicting the components by another
measure. Sometimes, the word spectrum refers to the compound signal itself, such as the
"spectrum of visible light", a reference to those electromagnetic waves which are visible
to the human eye. Looking at light through a
prism separates visible light into its colors
according to wavelength.

II. The Visible Light_ Spectrum:

The Visible Light _ Spectrum

The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible
to (can be detected by) the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of
wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to
wavelengths from about 390 to 750 nm. In terms of frequency, this corresponds to a band
in the vicinity of 400–790 THz. A light-adapted eye generally
FIGURE haslight
2: White itsismaximum
dispersed by a
prism
sensitivity at around 555 nm (540 THz), in the green into the
region ofcolors of the optical
the optical spectrum.
spectrum (see:
luminosity function). The spectrum does not, however, contain all the colors that the
human eyes and brain can distinguish. Unsaturated colors such as pink, or purple
variations such as magenta, are absent, for example, because they can only be made by a
mix of multiple wavelengths.

Visible wavelengths also pass through the "optical window", the region of the
electromagnetic spectrum that passes largely unattenuated through the Earth's atmosphere. Clean
air scatters blue light more than wavelengths toward the red, which is why the mid-day sky
appears blue. The human eye's response is defined by subjective testing, but atmospheric
windows are defined by physical measurement.

The "visible window" is so called because it overlaps the human visible response spectrum.
The near infrared (NIR) windows lie just out of the human response window, and the Medium
Wavelength IR (MWIR) and Long Wavelength or Far Infrared (LWIR or FIR) are far beyond
the human response region.

Many species can see frequencies which fall outside the "visible spectrum". Bees and many
other insects can see light in the ultraviolet, which helps them find nectar in flowers. Plant
species that depend on insect pollination may owe reproductive success to their appearance in
ultraviolet light, rather than how colorful they appear to humans. Birds too can see into the
ultraviolet (300–400 nm), and some have sex-dependent markings on their plumage, which are
only visible in the ultraviolet range.
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

III. Newton and the Color Spectrum

Our modern understanding of

FIGURE 3:The diagram
light and color begins with Isaac from Sir Isaac Newton’s
crucial experiment, 1666-
Newton (1642-1726) and a series
72. A ray of light is
of experiments that he publishes in divided into its constituent
colors by the first prism
1672. He is the first to understand (left), and the resulting
the rainbow — he refracts white bundle of colored rays is
reconstituted into white
light with a prism, resolving it into light by the second.
its component colors: red, orange,
yellow, green, blue and violet.

In the late 1660s, Newton starts experimenting with

his ’celebrated phenomenon of colors.’ At the time,
people thought that color was a mixture of light and
darkness, and that prisms colored light. Hooke was a
proponent of this theory of color. Newton realizes this
theory was false.
FIGURE 4
Newton set up a prism near his window, and
projected a beautiful spectrum 22 feet onto the far wall. Further, to prove
that the prism was not coloring the light, he refracted the light back together.

Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for
color. His most useful idea for artists was his conceptual arrangement of colors around the
circumference of a circle (right), which allowed the painters’ primaries (red, yellow, blue) to be
arranged opposite their complementary colors (e.g. red opposite green), as a way of denoting
that each complementary would enhance the other’s effect through optical contrast.

IV. spectral Colors:

The Visible Light _ Spectrum

Colors that can be produced by visible light of a single frequency or wavelength

(monochromatic light) are referred to as the pure spectral colors.

Color Frequency Wavelength

violet 668–789 THz 380–450 nm
blue 631–668 THz 450–475 nm
cyan 606–630 THz 476–495 nm FIGURE 5
green 526–606 THz 495–570 nm
yellow 508–526 THz 570–590 nm Color
orange 484–508 THz 590–620 nm spectrum of
red 400–484 THz 620–750 nm the complete
RGB color
wheel
generated in
a display
device.

V. Electromagnetic spectrum:

The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of

electromagnetic radiation.[1] The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the
characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that
particular object.
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

FIGURE 6:

EM waves are typically described by any of the following three physical properties:
the frequency f, wavelength λ, or photon energy E. Frequencies range from 2.4×1023
 Hz (1 GeV gamma rays) down to the local plasma frequency of the ionized interstellar
medium (~1 kHz). Wavelength is inversely proportional to the wave frequency, so
gamma rays have very short wavelengths that are fractions of the size of atoms, whereas
wavelengths can be as long as the universe. Photon energy is directly proportional to the
wave frequency, so gamma rays have the highest energy (around a billion electron volts)
and radio waves have very low energy (around femto electron volts).

VI. The emission spectrum

The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of

frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the element's atoms or the
compound's molecules when they are returned to a lower energy state.
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

Each element's emission spectrum is unique. Therefore, spectroscopy can be used to

identify the elements in matter of unknown composition. Similarly, the emission spectra
of molecules can be used in chemical analysis of substances.

FIGURE 7: Emission spectrum of Hydrogen

FIGURE 8: Emission spectrum of Iron

REFERENCES

1. ^ Cecie Starr (2005). Biology: Concepts and Applications. Thomson Brooks/Cole.

ISBN 053446226X. http://books.google.com/?id=RtSpGV_Pl_0C&pg=PA94.
2. ^ Jamieson, Barrie G. M. (2007). Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Birds. Charlottesville
VA: University of Virginia. p. 128. ISBN 1578083869.
The Visible Light _ Spectrum

3. ^ Coffey, Peter (1912). The Science of Logic: An Inquiry Into the Principles of Accurate
Thought. Longmans. http://books.google.com/?id=j8BCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA185&dq=
%22roger+bacon%22+prism.
4. ^ Hutchison, Niels (2004). "Music For Measure: On the 300th Anniversary of Newton's
Opticks". Colour Music. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~colmusic/opticks3.htm. Retrieved 2006-08-
11.
5. ^ Newton, Isaac (1704). Opticks.

^ Mary Jo Nye (editor) (2003). The Cambridge History of Science: The Modern Physical and
Mathematical Sciences. 5. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780521571999.
http://books.google.com/?id=B3WvWhJTTX8C&pg=PA278&dq=spectrum+%22thomas+young
%22+herschel+ritter

6. ^ John C. D. Brand (1995). Lines of light: the sources of dispersive spectroscopy, 1800-1930.
CRC Press. p. 30–32. ISBN 9782884491631. http://books.google.com/?
id=sKx0IBC22p4C&pg=PA30&dq=light+wavelength+color++young+fresnel.
7. ^ Thomas J. Bruno, Paris D. N. Svoronos. CRC Handbook of Fundamental Spectroscopic
Correlation Charts. CRC Press, 2005.

^ http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/repspec/