Talk:Incandescence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Physics This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, which collaborates on articles related to physics.
Stub This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the assessment scale.
??? This article has not yet received an importance rating within physics.

Help with this template This article has been rated but has no comments. If appropriate, please review the article and leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.
This article has been automatically assessed as Stub-Class by WikiProject Physics because it uses a stub template.
  • If you agree with the assessment, please remove {{Physics}}'s auto=yes parameter from this talk page.
  • If you disagree with the assessment, please change it by editing the class parameter of the {{Physics}} template, removing {{Physics}}'s auto=yes parameter from this talk page, and removing the stub template from the article.

[edit] spectral graphs

We need graphs/curves of the spectral emissions.-69.87.203.220 19:54, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

I recently edited this page, removing the incorrect "atomic orbital excitation". This is because incandescence is purely related to black body radiation which produces a continuous spectrum of radiation and has nothing to do with atomic orbital excitation which produces descrete radiation consistent with the specific energy diffenrences in the orbitals. However after making this change, Robin David Saunders reverted the entry back to include this error. I suggest when an expert on this subject reviews this article that they confirm this. - 194.130.163.67 17.31, 07 september 2007(GMT).

[edit] Definitions

Defs on the web, other than the one from wikipedia, are all about visible light, as are the ones in books that I've looked at. So I changed it. Dicklyon (talk) 21:23, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious caption to Incandescence.jpg

I'm not sure if the caption for Image:Incandescence.jpg is correct, or at least it might be misleading and a poor example. IIRC, many metals' colors in flame (sodium, etc., and their ions) are due to electron excitation. It's more common to use the color of metals in flame as an example of excitation and energy levels. It's confusing to discuss the colors of "metal embers", since this other factor comes into play. —AySz88\^-^ 02:42, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Is there some way that light is emitted other than via electron excitation/de-excitation? I don't think so. The difference that's relevant here is between the solid bits (the embers) and the gas. In the gas, electron energy states are pretty discrete, but in solids the distribution is pretty continuous; that's why solids act sort of like black bodies, and gases don't. I'm not sure it's appropriate to say the gas is not incandescent; do we have a definition that implies that? Dicklyon (talk) 07:42, 8 June 2008 (UTC)