Spectrometers

Perhaps the best way to think of a spectrometer is to relate it to a prism. A prism takes the white light of the sun and breaks it up into its component colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. What we perceive as color is simply a reflection of the sun’s energy in the narrow band of wavelengths and frequencies our eyes can see. In the same way that our ears cannot hear a high-pitched dog whistle, our eyes cannot detect any of the sun’s rays that are outside their limited range. To counter our built-in limitations, the military uses night scopes, which allow one to see the otherwise invisible, low-energy infrared rays. On the other side of the visible spectrum, the use of a black light can allow one to see the fluorescent colors in the high-energy ultraviolet part of the spectrum. In the 1960s, ‘hippies’ used black lights in pursuit of a different type of high energy. There are other forms of energy as well. From lowest energy level to highest, the complete spectrum consists of radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. Together, they are called the electromagnetic spectrum. To learn more about how spectrometers work for Goji Berries please click here.