Chemistry Music Video 12: What The Heck Is Light

This song explains how light is formed, what the different types of electromagnetic radiation are and the significance of bright-line spectra. Lightning filmed June of 2007. Music and lyrics copyright 2007 by Mark Rosengarten. All rights reserved. Lyrics: Light, LIGHT! It scares away the fright Soothing incandescence in the middle of the night No more bed at sunset, much to our delight You know we all adore it, but what the heck is LIGHT? Look at the electrons, all happy in their shells Zipping right along, their life is pretty swell Each one has their own amount of certain energy And they will stay forever, if you let them be But if you kick an atom squarely in the pants The electrons get excited and will do their special dance Some absorb the energy and move to higher shells And leave behind blank places in the spots that once they dwelled What goes up, must then come down is not a silly beast When electrons fall back down, extra energy released Whatever made them to proceed in their upwards flight When they give off energy, its in the form of LIGHT! The farther that they fall, the more power has the light The shorter is the wavelength (the waves will be packed tight) The higher is the frequency of wavelengths that will pass Light is made of photons, which have no charge or mass! Light, LIGHT! It wows us with its might Phosphorescent stars in the middle of the night Ceiling constellations, much to our delight You know we all adore it, but what the heck is LIGHT? Light comes in many flavors, depends on energy Only a slight range of light is light that we can see From red to blue to violet, mnemonic we can give Is easy to remember, it is ROY G BIV! Light with lower energy starts with radio Listen to your music anywhere you go Radar has more energy, cops use it on their beat Then comes infrared, which is given off with heat Ultraviolet rays can cause sunburns at the lake X-rays go through all but bone to see if theres a break Finally, theres gamma rays, but they have so much juice They go through almost everything if you set them loose. Elemental atoms give off bands of colored light Its called a bright-line spectrum because the lines are bright Each elemental spectrum is different from the rest Identifies what element you have in a test Light, LIGHT! It wows us with its might Aurora borealis in the middle of the night Glowing in the northern sky, much to our delight Now you know the truth about that wondrous thing called LIGHT!