Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

[I am new to this "Ask an Expert" thing so if I am asking in the wrong forum or asking a question that cannot be answered then please pardon my mistake! ]

I am interested in the Rainbow Fire experiment (having to deal with quantum chemistry) and I'm planning to do it for this year's science project at my school. I looked over the contents of the experiment and I would like to know what would be a good hypothesis in relation to doing the flame tests.

So far I am not sure what there is to observe and find out, other than burning metal salts and observing the color flames they emit and determining the metal by that color (but the identification of that metal is already given...). So would a good question be: "Do the color of the flames that are emitted by the burning metals indicate the temperature of the flame? Yes or no?"

Please help me with this, it is just the hypothesis part I am quite fidgety on and I can't wrap my mind around it.

Thank you!

Welcome to Science Buddies!

Have you had a chance to read through the background material for the Rainbow Fire project (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... background)? It might give you some ideas on the type of questions you could ask.
Some things you might want to think about: you know what metals you have but what about the metal causes the color of the flame to change? Why do different metals produce different colored flames?

The question you asked about temperature of the flame is interesting, but you won't be able to investigate it with the current Rainbow Fire experiment procedure since temperature of the flame is not measured.

Hope that helps, and please feel free to continue to ask more questions.

If you do perform the Rainbow Fire experiment, make sure to have adult supervision and follow all the safety notes. Good luck with your project.

Hmm, so the question to be evaluated is "During a flame test, why do different metals emit different colors of light when burned?" or "During a flame test, what characteristics about the metal salts causes the color to change?"

I think these are good questions! But I am not sure how I would receive the answers when doing this experiment. Also, I don't know what my assumption (hypothesis, educated guess ) should be. I don't want it to sound like it came from an unscientific point of view when I present this project idea to my teacher (who will ask what the problem and hypothesis is before being approved). So far what I would think is that "I think metals emit different colors because their electrons have different energy levels".

I'm sorry if this sounded disorganized, I just don't know what to put for my experimentation contents (problem, hypothesis...). And yes, I have read the background information

Please, if you have any other ideas how my project should be laid out then please share!

Hi CheezyPandas15,

It looks like you've asked similar questions on another topic thread. In general we ask you to keep your questions on a single topic thread - it helps us help you more effectively. I'm in the process of responding to your questions on this topic thread: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=14819.