Elemental Absorption and Emission Spectra

The applet worked as advertised. Some documentation would make it more user friendly. It could be improved if the spectra could be viewed more closely. This would make it easier to use the cursor to determine frequencies and also make splitting observable It would be very nice for the splitting of the Na line for example.

The software works well and is very simple. While it is fairly self-explanatory, some documentation should be included and is not currently.

The information that the review was based off of can be found in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 1st Student Edition 1988 by CRC Press Pages E-150 through E-271. It was found, upon inspection of 10 elements that the information provided through the applet is very valid. When compared to the actual values for visual spectral emissions, the numbers recorded in the applet were very close. The root mean squared of the percent differences produces an astoundingly low 0.265. It can also be noted that being the program only claims accuracy to 4 digits, thereby producing only integers for out put, this 0.265 difference when compared to the actual non-integer numbers of the spectral emissions is amazing. In addition to these points, it was also noted that for hydrogen all visual emissions for the element were represented in the applet correctly. It is not known if this accuracy persists for all the elements listed in the applet, however the checks that were performed for the elements observed confirmed that a number of random actual emissions selected were represented in the applet properly. Because of both of these facts it can be concluded that the applet is very valid. It would be wise however to have a numerical output window capable of opening and providing all the emission frequencies for each of the elements so that more accurate data can be collected.