What Causes the Color of Electric Sparks?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Godwin Kessy
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Color Electric
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

The color of electric sparks is primarily due to the heating of air and the emission of light from vaporized materials. Sparks typically appear white when they reach temperatures similar to the sun, while a green hue is produced when copper wire vaporizes, emitting green wavelengths. Blue sparks result from the emission lines of oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air. The brightness of the sparks often saturates the human eye's color perception, leading to the predominance of white.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of plasma physics
  • Knowledge of atomic emission spectra
  • Familiarity with the properties of copper and its combustion
  • Basic principles of thermodynamics related to heat and light
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the atomic emission spectra of elements, focusing on copper and its green emission
  • Explore the principles of plasma physics and its applications in electric sparks
  • Study the thermodynamic properties of air and how they relate to spark formation
  • Investigate the effects of temperature on color perception in human vision
USEFUL FOR

Students of physics, electrical engineers, and anyone interested in the science behind electric phenomena and light emission.

Godwin Kessy
Messages
91
Reaction score
0
What are really these electric sparks and why do they attain a characteristic color?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The bit you see is the heated air. The characterstic color is either white simply because it is hot enough to be the same temperature as the sun (or near enough for our eyes) and so looks white.

Or sometimes green because it has vapourised some of the copper wire and copper emits a green wavelength when it burns
 
What about blue?
 
Oops I was wrong.
Air isn't dense enough to give a noticeable black body emission from a plasma.
Most sparks appear white simply because they are bright enough to saturate your eye's color sense.

The blue color is from the emission lines of oxygen/nitrogen molecules in the air, but green is from the copper.
 
thanks mgb
 
Hey mr. Whats actualy is a spark ie what composes sparks and what actualy causes sparks and why?

what i get you is that heating effect due sparking causes the characteristic color
 

Similar threads

High School Is a Spark Necessary for the Production of EM Waves in the Hertz Experiment?
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
2K
Undergrad Can visible light cause fluorescence in colorful objects?
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
3K
Undergrad Current's Effect on Electrical Arcs
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
3K
High School Electric Field Direction: Are We Assuming a Universal Positive Frame?
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
2K
Graduate What Causes Electric and Color Charge in Fundamental Particles?
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
1K
High School Electric Fields inside Conductors & Gauss' Law
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
484
High School Thought Experiment on Charge Carriers and Electrical Conduction
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
582
High School Magnetic field produced by an electric current
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
2K
Graduate What Molecular Mechanisms Cause Different Arc Phenomena in High Electric Fields?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Graduate Strong electric field and dielectric breakdown
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K