Colourful Physics
10th December 20
Year 13 A level Physics students have been looking at a neon tube through a diffraction grating, which splits up the red-orange neon colour into an emission spectrum.
Each line is caused by an electron dropping down one or more energy levels in the neon atom and emitting a photon. The colour of the photon depends on the size of the energy gap.
This process is used to observe the light from galaxies; red shift of the light is evidence for the expansion of the universe.
Dr Louise Affleck, Director of Studies and Physics Teacher
