[TCML] Do spectroscopy !

[Gerekos Christopher <gerekos.christopher@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everybody,

Have you considered taking pictures of your firing Tesla coil with a
diffraction grating ? This will split the light from the sparks in its
different wavelengths, and as atoms have discrete energy levels, you'll see
spectral lines. The results are pretty cute and interesting. Here's a
sample :

https://picasaweb.google.com/gerekos.christopher/ZeusTeslaCoil#5735887221955821042
https://picasaweb.google.com/gerekos.christopher/ZeusTeslaCoil#5735887427519678690
https://picasaweb.google.com/gerekos.christopher/ZeusTeslaCoil#5735887443085969298

These photographs were taken with a 500 lines/mm diffraction film placed in
front of the lens, with various shutter speeds. The arcs are about 30cm in
length, that's somewhat short but it revealed important to have brighter
sparks to get a nice spectrum.

Identifying the spectral lines on the sole pictures must be quite
challenging, but it is reasonable to argue nitrogen plays an important
role. See: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=nitrogen+spectrum (look
also for the ionized states).

Have fun,

Chris Gerekos.
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