In this section, you will observe the different frequencies of light produced by three different light bulbs. Modern fluorescents try to simulate daylight conditions by producing colors of various "temperatures". A fluorescent bulb actually contains a mixture of electrically excited gases that produce light at a number of narrow frequencies. Our eyes, however, are poor spectrometers and thus perceive this light as similar to light from other types of lightbulbs, such as LEDs and incandescent bulbs.
Using Wien’s law, you can calculate the temperature of a black body emitter if you know the peak wavelength. Wien’s law is
where λpeak and T are in units of nanometers (nm) and Kelvin (K), respectively.
