Discussion and Analysis for electronic energy

Different substances were held into flame to see the colours they would produce. Each solution gave off a colour.The different colours seen are apart of the electromagnetic spectrum, (visisble spectrum) (ROYGBIV). The substances form different colours because of their different energy levels. What happens is that the atoms start off with electrons in different energy levels and when they are burned the electrons get excited for a while and then goes back down to their original state giving off colour. When electrons are in an excited state, they jump to an electron shell that has a higher amount of energy. The colour change is based on the different energy levels the electrons are at. The flame colours seen were caused by the cations (metals) in the compound eg. All the copper metals would produce the same flame colour, green ,so it is easy to say that copper is responsible for the flame colour. Another point was that there was a difference between the copper and the barium flame colours . The copper solutions produced a green colour and the barium, a yellow. This shows that the energy levels are different. The hydrochloric acid was used to clean the nichrome wire after each solutions was tested. If the nichrome wire was not cleaned properly, it would emit two or more different colours when substance was held into the heat. Sodium nitrate solution by itself was an orange colour when flame tested. The potassium nitrate solution by itself was a light yellow colour. When these two substances were combined, it produced a dark orange colour. The energy levels of both substances together produced a darker orange colour.
The unknown solutions produced similar colours to some of the substance tested before. It is believed that unknown solution #1 is strontium nitrate because it has the same effect. The colours were both the same and the flame got much