Chemistry of Colour in Fireworks Essay Example

wavelength, frequency, energy levels, white light and wavelengths emitted from compounds. Fireworks were discovered around 2000 years ago in China; they were originally used in New Year's celebrations and have slowly been improved over the years. (Anne Marie Helmsmen, 2013) The human brain and eye turns light into the color we see.

Color is the perception of all the different wavelengths of light in the visible light spectrum.

Infrared and ultraviolet light are not defined as colors because they are outside of the visible eight spectrum and are not visible to the human eye. A photon is a particle of light with no mass or electric charge. (Conjecture Corporation, 2013) Fireworks have light which makes them visible in the dark. All elements have varying amounts of electrons which revolve around the nucleus on deterrent shells or energy levels sees till trot the middle, outermost shells being capable of holding more electrons.

Refer to Appendix B) If an electron absorbs enough photons, it will Jump out an energy level, when this happens the electron is in an excited state. Going the other way, when an electron umps back down an energy level, it must give off some energy; the atom does this by emitting photons. This is what causes the light created from fireworks. (Server, 2013) Light Intensity is the rate at which light is delivered to a surface. The light energy depends on both the light intensity and the wavelength (Physics classroom, 2012).

If light intensity is higher, the fireworks will appear brighter. Fireworks are usually made up of: oxidize, binders, reducing agents and coloring agents. (ORACLE, 2011) When fireworks explode, they produce sound, light and heat.

Light is produced because when the coloring agent (a metal/salt) is heated, the atoms of each element take in the energy and then emit it as different colored light.

The color of the fireworks depends on the length of the waves emitted from the compound, with different elements emitting different wavelengths. Cohn A. Conklin, 1985) (Rebecca H, 2013) Only the coloring agent is relevant in terms of the color of fireworks. A Wavelength is the length of a period in a wave, and a wave is energy that moves through a medium. (Conjecture Corporation, 2013 ) There is a large range of different avalanches of light; this range is known as the electromagnetic spectrum. (Conjecture Corporation, 2013) Frequency is defined as the number of periods or regularly occurring events of any given kind in unit of time, usually in one second' (Dictionary. Com, 2012).

Frequency is equal to the speed a wave is traveling divided by the length of that wave. (Davison E. Super, 2007 ) Frequency can be used to find the length of the wave and energy.

Planks theory (E=HP) explains the relationship between light and energy, where E stands for energy, v stands for frequency and h stands for planks constant which is . 626*AAA-34 (F scullion, 2013) White light is the color seen by humans when all the different colors are combined (white). When white light is shone through a prism, it separates the light into separate colors. Conjecture Corporation, 2013) If white light is shone on a material, that material will absorb some of that light, and then emit the rest.

The wavelengths emitted make up the color that we see. If something

is black, that means that it absorbs all the wavelengths and does not emit any. When heated, chemicals emit different wavelengths showing particular colors refer to Abstract). Below is a table of the color and wavelength emitted from deterrent compounds (ret to appendix A) The compounds in this table would be used as the coloring agents mentioned before, to make the fireworks a particular color.

The wavelength of light can be determined from its frequency. The worked example from the chemistry textbook was used for an example of a problem where the wavelength was found, given the frequency. (Prentice Hall Chemistry) Anthony C. Willingham, Dennis D. Staley, Michael S. Matt, Edward L. Waterman) What is the avalanche of the yellow sodium emission, which has a frequency of ?

Solution: The frequency and wavelength related by the formula you rearrange to In which c -? speed of light 0.

Then substitute: The following is an explanation of what the above example was doing and why: First, the formula was used, in this formula. This was needed to be rearranged due to the variables given, is the variable that is missing so it goes on its own. Then substitute the values for c & v into the new equation and work it out using a calculator.

The answer is in m so convert to NM. This could be used to find the frequency as well by rearranging the original equation so v is on its own.

This is useful because if you combine the formula it with the table giving the frequencies of different colors, it allows you to find the frequency given a certain colored fireworks, or

vice versa (range of frequencies). So, when fireworks go off, the coloring agent absorbs photons from the explosion, causing electrons to Jump up an energy level, then, when they return back down, the agent emits light, the color and wavelength depending on what compound the coloring agent was made out of.