Building your own spectroscope using everyday items takes just under an hour. The needed tools, all of which should be relatively easy to find around the house. (Image credit: Nola Taylor Redd) ...

Did you know that white light is made up of many colors? To see these colors, we need to bend the light. This bending is called refraction. When you see a rainbow, it’s because sunlight is bending ...

Yesterday morning we made a spectroscope — a device that breaks light down into a rainbow of component colors — from a cardboard box and an old DVD. Different light sources give you different ...

This article was originally published with the title “ Making Old Air Better than New, Chemical Analysis with the Spectroscope ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 129 No. 2 (August 1923), p ...