spectrum

CE5

Dispersion of white light by a triangular prism

spectrum, arrangement or display of light or other form of radiation separated according to wavelength, frequency, energy, or some other property. Beams of charged particles can be separated into a spectrum according to mass in a mass spectrometer (see mass spectrograph). Physicists often find it useful to separate a beam of particles into a spectrum according to their energy.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Quantum Explanation of Spectral Lines
• Continuous and Line Spectra

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