 Gustav
Kirchoff (1824-1887) was a German physicist who realized that each element
gave off a characteristic color of light when heated to incandescence. When
separated by a prism, the light for each element had a specific pattern
of wavelengths. Kirchoff, together with Bunsen, used his techniques to discover
two new elemente, cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). Kirchoff found that
when light shines through a gas, the gas absorbs some of the light, the
same wavelengths of light that it would emit when heated. He applied his
techniques to the Sun, explaining Fraunhofer lines. He also found that incandescent
solids, liquids, and compressed gases emit a continuous spectrum. |