Using Tracker to study solar spectrum (with absorption lines) for the topic of Quantum Physics

Line Spectral with Tracker
Created this instructional video on "using Tracker for spectroscopy". Youtube link is here.


Lessons that took place before this activity Students could have

• observed the emission spectrum of elements such as sodium, neon, mercury, kryption, etc. although they do not have hands-on experience of setting up and adjusting the apparatus.
• gone through the theory and tutorial on the section of spectral lines.

Resources
Below is the worksheet that students will attempt.

Analysing solar spectrum from Lee Tat Leong

Pictures of the solar spectrum and the emission spectrum of different elements (derived from the picture here and here).

• Hydrogen (H)
• Helium (He)
• Sodium (Na)
• Magnesium (Mg)
• Solar spectrum

Disadvantages of hands-on approach

• Experiments on spectral lines are time consuming due to the difficulty in setting up and calibrating the spectrometer.
• The other big challenge is the availability of a suitably dark room to observe the emission spectrum of discharge tubes.
• The availability of sufficient apparatus for experiments.

Advantages of using Tracker

• Cheap.
• Easy to deploy.
• Easy to operate to obtain quality results for comparison and analysis because students  can now focus on the actual physics rather than on the setting up of the experiment.