Spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer is a machine that helps us figure out what colors things are made of! You know how you can mix different colors of paint to get a new color? Well, things that aren’t paint also have different colors that are made up of different colors mixed together.
In a spectrophotometer, we shine a special kind of light through the thing we want to know the color of. This light is made of LOTS of different colors mixed together, like a rainbow! When the light goes through the thing, some of the colors get absorbed, or taken in by the thing, while others bounce off and come back to us. The light that comes back to us tells us what colors were absorbed and what colors weren’t.
We take this information and use it to figure out what colors are in the thing we’re looking at. This is really helpful for things like medicine, because if we know what colors are in a medicine we can make sure that it’s safe to use. Scientists also use spectrophotometers to figure out what kind of things are in our air and water, so we can keep them clean and healthy!
In a spectrophotometer, we shine a special kind of light through the thing we want to know the color of. This light is made of LOTS of different colors mixed together, like a rainbow! When the light goes through the thing, some of the colors get absorbed, or taken in by the thing, while others bounce off and come back to us. The light that comes back to us tells us what colors were absorbed and what colors weren’t.
We take this information and use it to figure out what colors are in the thing we’re looking at. This is really helpful for things like medicine, because if we know what colors are in a medicine we can make sure that it’s safe to use. Scientists also use spectrophotometers to figure out what kind of things are in our air and water, so we can keep them clean and healthy!