The Light of a Candle




Michael Faraday was fascinated by candle light.
He realized that the white light is due to glowing soot. But he was puzzled by the blue light.
He would have liked to have the Ocean Optics spectrograph and record the spectra below.
He would have realized that the pale blue flame is fascinating: it is chemiluminescence of molecules!



from the lecture "Faszination Licht", delivered together with Prof. Peter Belser for the Société fribourgeoise des sciences naturelles


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February 25, 2008 (MA)