Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is a science concerned with the analysis of the composition of matter based on the kind of radiation emitted by that matter. For example, suppose that a piece of iron is heated until it begins to glow. The light given off by the iron is a characteristic property of iron. That is, the light is different from light produced by any other metal such as copper, tin, lead, uranium, or aluminum.
The spectroscope
In heated samples of iron, copper, tin, and other metals, the light produced does not look very different from one metal to the next. The differences that do exist in these cases can be detected only by using a special...
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