Spectrum Notes

Essential knowledge, skills, and processes

 Explain the relationships between wavelength and the color of light, and energy. Name the
colors of the visible spectrum.
 ROYGBIV

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Visible spectrum- light we can see
 -Roy G. Biv - Acronym for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, & violet
 -Largest to smallest wavelength.

Vocabulary
  Visible spectrum (visible light): a combination of several different wavelengths of light traveling
together. It is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 Diagram and label a representation of a light wave (wavelength, peak, trough)

Vocabulary

 Waves: a disturbance which carries energy and that travels away from the starting
point.
 Wavelength: The distance between one crest of a wave and the next crest(distance
between compressrions); red is longest and violet is shortest.

Nature of waves

 Medium- substance or region through which a wave is transmitted.

 Speed of waves- depends on the properties of the medium

Albert Einstein

 Light: what is it?

o Atoms
 As atoms absorb energy, electrons jump out to a higher energy level
 Electrons release light when falling down to the lower energy level.
o Photons- Bundles/packets of enrgy released when the electrons fall.
 Light: Stream of photons

Light: particles or waves?

 Wave Model of light

o Explains most properties of light
 Particle theory of light
  Photoelectric effect- photons of light produces free electrons.

Important equations

 Speed = wavelength X frequency

 C=



Important Equations

 E= h*f
 E=energy
 H=planks constant=6.626 * 10-34
 F= frequency in hertz or 1/s