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The Many Colors of Sunlight
http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Lsun4spe.htm
From DLESE Community Collection (DCC)
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This lesson serves as an introduction to color and to both line spectra and continuous spectra, with applications to sunlight. It also explains how a glass prism resolves light into its rainbow components and the difference between spectral colors and the colors perceived by the eye. Students will learn that hot solids (or dense gases) radiate a continuous spectrum, related to their temperature. But the colors of a glowing rarefied gas are characteristic of the atoms emitting them. They also learn that cold atoms in a gas absorb the same colors as the ones they emit when hot, and that such absorption causes dark lines in the Sun's spectrum. Lastly, the students learn that light is a wave with a very short wavelength on the order of a few microns (0.001 millimeter), spreading through space.
Intended for grade levels:
  • High (9-12)
Type of resource:
  • For the classroom:
    • Lesson plan
Subject:
  • Physics
  • Space science
Technical requirements:
No specific technical requirements, just a browser required
Cost / Copyright:
No cost
May be used non-commercially as long as credit is given to the author.
DLESE Catalog ID: DLESE-000-000-005-168
Educational standards:
  • National Science Education Standards (NSES):
    • 9-12:
      • Unifying concepts and processes:
        • Change, constancy, and measurement
        • Evidence, models, and explanation
      • A - Science as inquiry:
        • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
      • B - Physical science:
        • Structure of atoms
      • G - History and nature of science:
        • Nature of scientific knowledge
        • Science as a human endeavor
Related resources:
This resource is referenced by 'From Stargazers to Starships'
http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Sintro.htm
Resource contact / Creator / Publisher:
Author: Dr David P. Stern
Goddard Space Flight Center