Continuous, Absorption, Emissions Oh My! A Spectra Lab Story

This week we've been working on light. So far, we've learned about three different types of spectra: continuous, absorption, and emission. To figure out the difference between these three types we did a lab! In this lab we used a spectroscope to look at a light and various tubes of vapor of different elements.
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Looking at a regular light you can see the entire light spectrum through the spectroscope. It looks a little like this:

Yes, I forgot orange, sorry. Turns out that a regular light is a continuous spectra. The light just keeps going and going and going. . .

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Next, we looked at the same light, but this time there was a jar of red food coloring in front of it. This actually changed the visible light spectrum coming from the light. Instead of ROY. G. BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet), I was only able to see Red, Yellow, and Green.

This is an example of absorption. 

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We then looked at the same light again, but this time with a jar of blue food coloring in front of it. 

Also another example of absorption. The blue jar only absorbed the orange color, thereby displaying the rest of the spectrum.

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This is where things started to get tricky. Instead of looking at a regular light, the class used their spectroscopes to look at a tube of Hydrogen Vapor. When I looked at the vapor I could only see the colors of Red, Blue, and Purple.

This is an example of emission. There are only three colors visible, because an emission spectra only emits certain colors. 

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The next tube contained Mercury Vapor. Through the spectroscope you could only see Orange, Green and Purple. Once again, this is an example of an emission spectra.

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N is for Nitrogen, or Nitrogen Vapor. I was only able to see Red, Orange, Green, and Purple. Yep, it's an emission spectra.

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The next tube we looked at contained Argon. Through the spectroscope I was only able to see Red, Green, and Purple. E is for emission, that's good enough for me.

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A tube containing Helium only showed the colors Red, Orange, Green, and Purple.  Yes it's still emission.

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Finally, we checked out a tube full of Neon. This tube was actually interesting just in the fact that it was different. There was Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Purple. However, there were two lines of red and green. One line was darker while the other was lighter. You can see this in the drawing below, and yes it's emission.

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We were given this lab to figure out the differences between a continuous, absorption, and emission spectra.
A continuous spectra means that the light is continuous. The light keeps going and going. Also, it gives off the entire light spectrum when you look at it through a spectroscope.
An absorption spectra happens when a certain color or colors are absorbed. This means that only certain colors show up when seen through a spectroscope.
An emission spectrum usually deals with an element. Every element's emission spectra is different, meaning that you will always see a different set of colors when you look through a spectroscope.

So there it is, continuous, absorption, and emission spectra.