When you heat up an element enough, the electrons in that element get excited and skip to another level of evergy. When that element relaxes, it emits a light that is equivalent to the amount of energy absorbed. This is what spectroscopy is based on, which is the quantification of certain atoms by the measuring of light. Also note that specific atoms absorb lights with a specific wavelength.
Whew! Now that that's over with, my future knitting project will make more sense.
I'm going to make a scarf of an emission spectrum. That means it's going to be all the wavelengths, but you'll only see the ones that are emitted from the atom I choose. Here's an example:
The first two are the ones that really interest me. They're the emission spectras of hydrogen (H) and of mercury (Hg).
I plan to measure how long I want to make the scarf, calculate how many stitches per wavelength, and make a "to-scale" atomic emission scarf with the right colors at the right position. Of course, I'm going to show this to all the other chem students and my profs when I'm done!
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