What are quantum rainbows: KS3 - how to read a rainbow

We send a huge amount of information down fibre optic cables in the form of pulses of light. Currently these light pulses are either ‘on’ or ‘off’. European scientists, lead by the University of Oxford, are looking at ways to send photons imprinted with entire spectra which would allow them to send more information at a time. In order to ‘read’ the imprinted photons they need to use spectroscopy.

In this session, students will create their own spectroscope to look at natural and artificial light sources and find out about some of the other uses of spectroscopy.

Learning outcomes:

• ‘White’ light is a mixture of different colours that can be split using prisms and diffraction gratings
• Sunlight appears as a continuous spectrum whereas artificial light often has bright lines of individual colours
• Scientists use spectroscopy as a tool for their experiments

See more at: https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/content/what-are-quantum-rainbows