Medium Diffraction Grating

Details

Demo use only

Instances

Used in these demonstrations

$Four colored candles burning in a foam base (purple, green, yellow, and red flames from bottom to top) with their diffracted emission spectra visible to the right, showing distinct colored lines for each flame$

Safety

Colorful Flames

Metal-compound candles produce colored flames with characteristic emission lines visible through a diffraction grating on a document camera. Students see direct visual evidence that atoms emit discrete wavelengths — not …

$Projected slit with red, green, and blue color filter sections separated by white gaps, with diffracted rainbow spectra visible on either side against a dark background$

Safety

Color Spectra

Shows how a diffraction grating decomposes white light into its spectrum, and how color filters selectively transmit only certain wavelengths. Demonstrates that filters subtract wavelengths from white light rather than …

$LED tower in a dark room with all LEDs illuminated from white at top through reds, orange, yellow, greens, turquoise, blues, to violet at bottom; first-order diffraction spectra visible to the right of each LED$

LED Tower

A vertical array of eleven labeled LEDs spanning the visible spectrum (400–640 nm plus white) provides a concrete reference for wavelength-color relationships. Used with a diffraction grating, students can verify …

$Light tower (right) with three vertically-mounted white light sources and their diffraction grating spectra (left): LED strip spectrum with horizontal line structure from strip segments (top), incandescent smooth continuous rainbow (middle), CFL discrete emission lines (bottom)$

Safety

Three White Lights

Compares the spectra of three "white" light sources through diffraction gratings. Students see that incandescent light produces a continuous blackbody spectrum, the CFL shows discrete mercury emission lines, and the …

$Overhead projector with diffraction grating on lens, projecting a bright white central slit image flanked by symmetric rainbow spectra (red on outside, blue/violet on inside) onto the wall$

Safety

White Light Spectrum

Demonstrates that white light is composed of all visible wavelengths by dispersing it into a continuous spectrum with a diffraction grating. Provides a foundation for spectroscopy and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Reserve This Equipment

Demo use only

This equipment supports lecture demonstrations and cannot be reserved directly — it is assigned automatically as part of a demonstration. To use it, request a demo that includes it.