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Related Concept Videos

Flame Photometry: Lab01:16

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In a flame photometer, when a solution like potassium chloride is aspirated into the flame, the solvent evaporates, leaving behind dehydrated salt. This salt dissociates into free gaseous atoms in their ground state. Some of these atoms absorb energy from the flame, leading to their excitation. The excited atoms return to the ground state, emitting photons at characteristic wavelengths. Because only electronic transitions are involved, the resulting emission lines are very narrow. The intensity...
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Flame photometry, also known as flame emission spectrometry, is a technique used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of elements present in a sample using a flame as the source of excitation energy. The concept of flame photometry was realized in the early 1860s by Kirchhoff and Bunsen, who discovered that specific elements emit characteristic radiation when excited in flames. The first instrument developed for this purpose was used to measure sodium (Na) in plant ash using a Bunsen...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Bringing the Visible Universe into Focus with Robo-AO
10:35

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Published on: February 12, 2013

Quantifying the "milky sky" experiment.

Stanley David Gedzelman1, Miguel Angel López-Alvarez, Javier Hernandez-Andrés

  • 1Departamento de Optica, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain. stan@sci.ccny.cuny.edu

Applied Optics
|November 28, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study explains why the sky is blue and the sun appears red using a milk-and-water experiment. Light scattering by milk particles demonstrated how shorter wavelengths scatter more, coloring the sky blue and the sun red.

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Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Optics
  • Atmospheric Optics

Background:

  • The blue color of the sky and the red appearance of the sun near the horizon are classic optical phenomena.
  • These phenomena are attributed to the scattering of sunlight by particles in the Earth's atmosphere.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To experimentally illustrate the principles behind the blue sky and red sun phenomena.
  • To investigate light scattering by milk particles as an analogue for atmospheric scattering.

Main Methods:

  • Spectroradiometric measurement of direct and scattered light transmitted through a water-milk mixture.
  • Application of Mie theory to analyze scattering properties.

Main Results:

  • Direct light showed reddening due to preferential scattering of shorter wavelengths by milk particles (casein micelles and fat globules).
  • Scattered light appeared blue at low optical thickness (near the source) and red at high optical thickness (far from the source).
  • Mie theory analysis estimated effective particle diameters of 170 nm for casein micelles and 610 nm for fat globules.

Conclusions:

  • The experiment successfully mimics atmospheric light scattering phenomena.
  • Particle size and optical thickness are critical factors determining the color of scattered and transmitted light.