By: Jaliyah Fitch, Opinion Editor
On Friday, November 7, honors chemistry students got a fired up start to their morning with a class experiment. Lab experiments are a good way for students to delve deeper into concepts they’ve learned in class while also providing the excitement of putting their knowledge to the test.
In their flame test, students were tasked with igniting wooden sticks coated in solutions like: Sodium (II) chloride, Sodium Nitrate, and lithium chloride to name a few. These solutions were unknown to students however, as the purpose of this experiment was to identify the substance based on the flame color it produced.
How it works:
When electrons get too excited, they emit energy in order to return to a state of relaxation. When conducted over heat, we can see the energy released through the visible light spectrum:
Credit: Elena Pimukova
The visible spectrum spans the wavelength region from about 400 to 700 nanometers (nm). Light of 400 nm is seen as violet and light of 700 nm is seen as red. Wavelength is inversely proportional to energy. Therefore, violet light is a higher energy light than red light.. Solutions that produced a red or orange flame were substances releasing a lower amount of energy, versus the solutions that produced a green or blue flame releasing a greater amount of energy.
Materials used:
- Tongs
- Bunsen Burners
- 2 sets of solutions (5 solutions per set)
- Wooden splints
- Test tubes
- Breaker of 1.4mL of water
Check out the video below to see some of the experiment in practice!
Applications of this experiment (where we see this science in the world):
Everyone loves a good firework show at a parade, festival, or even community events! Well, thanks to this experiment, we get a little insider on how those extravagant displays work. Inside a professional firework shell, different metals can be loaded inside. When ignited, those metals release energy in the form of the many colors we see during firework shows!
Some other practical uses are to simply see light! Moreau chemistry teacher Becky Conlon commented, “since energy isn’t always visible, it’s important to know that there are forms of energy that we can see and prove is there.”
A big thank you to Miss Conlon and the honors chemistry class for letting me tune into their experiment! I learned a great deal about fire just from observing on the side lines! It’s important to find ways to make learning just as exciting as it is educational!
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