Flame Test Lab

We test several chloride salts for their flame test colors. We then determine the identity of two unknowns via flame test.

[audgen]

When your lab turns into watching a video of someone else doing it because of coronavirus

[mrcbss]

Purple flame: 3:15
Green flame: 4:08
Wild Orange flame: 4:43
Lemon Yellow flame: 5:19
Light Orange flame: 5:49
Orange flame: 6:17
Pink flame: 6:46
Wild Yellow flame with white core: 7:17
Light Orange flame with White core: 7:47

[nuklearboysymbiote]

For those asking why cotton swab instead of platinum (or nichrome) wire, and those asking why H2O instead of HCl:
Cotton swabs are cheaper than platinum wire.
You use HCl to clean the platinum wire so that it is not contaminated, but in this case, because he throws away every used cotton swab, there is no need to clean it.
The water is for wetting the cotton so that the salt sticks onto the swab.

[fishproductions]

When the video is suddenly relevant 8 years later because of a *pandemic*

[sdeb]

Unknown1: Sodium, Na+
Unknown2: Barium, Ba++

[akaamber]

him: "dont ask mr.hummer what color is that flame that is for you to deside"
me: "im colorblind >_<"

[twistzzzz]

who watch this during lockdown? (in chem class) :)

[mal]

The salt expresses those colours because of their electrons, which get excited when they meet higher temperature, meaning they will "jump" from their ground state and come back, and when they do, they exhibit the visible colours.

[luiscarlosperdomohernandez]

Am I the only one that's hearing in the background the song from Taylor Swift of Never Ever Getting Back Together

[Revidescent]

Anyone else watching because your school did this too and it was really relaxing? Lol 20 years later and I still remembered what color they were all going to turn

[mindynougen]

Love watching labs instead of doing them bc school’s shut down

[lappelduvide]

Can someone tell me why it only works on metals and cations and not nonmetals/anions? I'm working on a science project and I don't really understand this part. Thanks

[dragonfire]

am i the only person who finds his voice relaxing?

[mrmonsterhunter]

Yoo the taylor swift in the background tho. Professor out here jamming lol

[silvercoins-wppf]

Is it possible by chemical means that the matchstick should ignite at the same time as any chemical that is about an inch or 5 inches away from the matchstick?

[fiokgoogle]

I was buy 99, 9% clean KCl but the flame test show orange flame colore , its indicate to me NaCl. Am I right?! Is that any other way to determine KCl?!

[shaunnmunn]

Errrrg! Both unknowns look like sodium! Probably my laptop. I did note that sample #1 appeared to burn brighter than #2, which I also noticed with the sodium/barium flames. Barium seems to emit less visible color as well. Would be interested to see the flames' ultra and infra signatures.


With neon (actually referring to just one color) signs, colors are due to gases of the same elements we watched burn in the video, sealed in glass tubes, with embedded wire electrodes. What I cannot find is the type of wire used. Would some metals react differently to the trapped gas? Do specific metals work best with certain gases, or am I over-analyzing?


Colors near the violet spectrum, seem dim to my naked eyes. When I look at neon signs, greens and blues tend to do the same thing. If the sign is heavy on yellow-to-reds, the greens and blues seem to recede. I know there are more colors than most humans can discern. I'd love to view neon tubes' infra-ultra spectrums.


How do such colors appear to others in this forum? I presume color-blindness would make them look quite different, but how about those with wider spectrums than mine? Do we all see colors the same way?


Thank you.

[عبدالعزيزالجهني-كل]

thanks ihave a test tomorrow in flame test

[zhakizukungaming]

What's the difference between the color of barium ions and and copper (I) ions ????

[sdr_printd]

I liked the process, however, your burner got contaminated and emitted a purple color on the outer range of the flame, instead of the clear blue that was at the beginning, and calcium and barium showed no difference, so this difficult the identification of the unknown, though by similar reactions and not color, I go for Na and Ca.