Flame Test Lab

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Lab Partner: Jason Wallace 02/17/09 LAB ABSTRACT: In this experiment unknown substances were identified by performing different flame tests on known substances. The substances identity was obtained by placing salt solutions of a metallic ion and observing the color of the emitted photon light. INTRODUCTION: By placing atoms of a substance into a flame it can absorb energy and jump into an excited state; called a quantum jump. After absorbing energy and leaping into an excited state, the atoms return back to their original ground state by emitting a photon of light. According to the law of conservation of energy the same amount of energy used to make the quantum jump is released when the photon light is emitted. The energy of each photon is measured using the equation E=hv. Where h is Planck’s constant and v is the frequency of the radiation. The amount of energy in a photon determines its color. They go in order of the rainbow; red being the weakest and violet being the strongest. PURPOSE: The purpose of this experiment is to burn atoms of a metal using a flame burner to see how much energy a photon releases by the color of light emitted. Also by observing the photon; the ability to specify an unknown substance will be available. PROCUDURE: Seven well plates were obtained and labeled with the name of the known substances. In each well plate place a small amount of known substances into the well plate. Use a different well plate for each substance. A beaker with 10mL of 6.0 M HCL solution was obtained along with a wire loop. Once this was done the flame burner was turned on to low. It was made sure that the nichrome wire was cleaned to not contaminate the other substances. After cleaned the nichrome wire was put into the burning flame for about 10 seconds. Observe the color emitted on the wire. The clean nichrome wire was dipped in a substance and then put over

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