Matt's Balmer Series Notebook: Difference between revisions
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*Fiddle with spectrometer until you obtain desirable cross hair position and general slit width. | *Fiddle with spectrometer until you obtain desirable cross hair position and general slit width. | ||
**Note: A thinner slit yields more accurate results, but sacrifices visibility. | **Note: A thinner slit yields more accurate results, but sacrifices visibility. | ||
=Procedure= | |||
After set up, we calibrated the spectrometer using the mercury tube. Looking up the wavelength on Wikipedia, we aligned a spectral line with the cross hairs and corrected the vernier scale to the accepted value of that particular color. For example, for our first set of observations we aligned the prominent green spectral line with the cross hairs and set the scale to read as 546nm, the accepted wavelength. | |||
=Google Documents= | =Google Documents= | ||
Revision as of 19:34, 4 October 2010
Safety
- The tubes are made of glass, and they should be handled with care.
- Glass tubes can get hot after even minimal use. Use caution when handling immediately after use.
Equipment
- Spectrometer - Adam Hilger; London, England; Serial: 12610
- Spectrum Tube Power Supply - Model: SP200 (5000V;10mA; Electro-Technic Products)
- Mercury Tube
- Hydrogen Tube
- Deuterium Tube
Set Up
- Place spectrometer and lamp on a sturdy, flat surface.
- Elevate the lamp to the point where the thinner part of the glass tube (while placed in the lamp) is level with the eye sight of the spectrometer. We used a stack of books.
- Fiddle with spectrometer until you obtain desirable cross hair position and general slit width.
- Note: A thinner slit yields more accurate results, but sacrifices visibility.
Procedure
After set up, we calibrated the spectrometer using the mercury tube. Looking up the wavelength on Wikipedia, we aligned a spectral line with the cross hairs and corrected the vernier scale to the accepted value of that particular color. For example, for our first set of observations we aligned the prominent green spectral line with the cross hairs and set the scale to read as 546nm, the accepted wavelength.
Google Documents
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{{#widget:Google Spreadsheet |key=0At9fxsqtusShdGVZXzNqQlB1a3lacmhNOXhHRHl4RkE |width=600 |height=300 }}
