Monday, October 21, 2013

Spectral analysis

The summer has gone working with full throttle and I haven't had much time to do anything creative. (Unless you count some not-finished knitworks into the category.) Now I finally had some inspiration to create somekind of an Internet version of my Spectrum Task I did for my final thesis. So if you or anyone you know is a physics/astronomy enthusiast and would like to try some spectral analysis, here's the task for you.

You need to find out which elements are hiding in the given spectrum. Compare the absorption and emission lines to conclude the elements. This is still a very rudimentary version, I hope I'll be able to create a better version some day with redshift and hints to what the object could be. But if you happen to be e.g. a junior high physics teacher, this might be a good pastime for those really smart kids who always seem to be a bit head of their classmates.

Download the theory and instructions (2.1MB)
Download the element spectra (660KB)
Download 1st task (2.4MB)

You need to print and cut out the element spectra and print the tasks, so be sure you have scissors and printer around.

The answers for tasks you can find here. But are you sure you want to check that before trying?

Spectral analysis ready for investigation