Color & Spectra

when the subject of the light spectra is considered it is mostly referring to the visible spectra from 380 nm to about 780 nm, or what wavelength we humans can see.  there are of course are other spectra in the inferred and ultra violet and even beyond that, but we wont have to worry about that till another day

the diffraction lens we use is very small, naked to the human eye, we can however use diffraction pattern projected to find the spacing between them, but since it is a fixed lens we can assume that the spacing is just 1.6*10^-6 m

with the d spacing known we can use 

lambda = D/(L^2+D^2)^1/2 to find the wavelength of the spectra that we observe across the table.

for max D of .62m

and min D of .35m

we then found lambda of the max and min D to be 470 and 690 (nm)

As we measured each wavelength the purple was 393 nm, blue 446 nm, green 506 nm, yellow 507 nm, and red was 644 nm. with the different Ds

we took the data of our wave length and plotted it vs the theoretical data, which was fairly close to one another, we then used the different types of wavelength to obtain the element that was emitting  the light, and have found out that it was mercury.

using a high voltage difference we can excited electrons in to omitting light, from that light we can get a color spectra which then we can find the max and min wavelength, we then can use this data to determine unknown

elements.

this becomes very helpful in many projects when chemicals or subsistence are unknown.  by using the diffraction pattern of its color spectra we can found out what element it contain.although i am not quite sure if we can determine the type of element when substances are mixed.