Kirchhoff formulated three laws to describe the individual spectral bands that are observed when looking through a prism at a hot gas. The first law says a hot, solid object will produce light in a continuous spectrum. The second law states that a hot gas will produce light of discrete wavelengths which are unique to the gas. The third law describes the opposite effect where a hot object surrounded by a cool gas produces light in a continuous spectrum, but with distinct wavelengths missing that are unique to the gas. Since these spectral bands are unique to each element, identifying the elements in a gas is like identifying people by fingerprints. This made identifying or discovering elements a lot easier than before.
Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen used this technique to discover cesium and rubidium. His three spectral laws were a step towards a new branch of science that would become quantum mechanics. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.
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