After the incredible physics course last year, we’re now taking an introductory chemistry class with our new facilitator.
We’re going through lessons such as scientific methods, isotopes, moles, ions, electron configuration, and emissions.
Our latest lesson was on emission; we learned how atoms emitted energy to visible colors when it becomes excited. So, let’s break it down. Throughout history, scientists had been debating whether lights act as waves or particles. But, in this unit, we’re learning when lights act as waves. Ok, what does that have to do with emissions? So, when some amount of energy hits an atom, some of its electrons become excited and jump to a higher energy orbital or excited state. Then, those excited electrons will release the energy as photons which are the visible colors and jumped back to its ground state. Those visible colors are release with different wavelengths that produce different colors.
We also did a flame test lab on this lesson. It’s fun because..we get to wear those lab coats and it looks cool. Actually, there’s more than that. First of all, we lit up the Bunsen burner with lighters, then we put the different compounds of chloride and see observe the changes in the flame colors. Those compounds are barium, calcium, copper II, lithium, potassium, strontium, and an unknown #1. Then, we have to record all the data of different compounds and write a lab report for it.
My personal favorite is copper II:
