Talk:Spectroscopy
|
|
| Contents |
Mass spectroscopy
Mass spectra don't really fit into this definition of spectrosopy. Is this a problem?
On the surface, it would seem so. But, according to Einstein's famous identity, E=mc^2, mass and energy are the same thing. one could, in principle, plot a mass spectrum in energy units rather than in mass units. That this is not done in practice does not overshadow the interchangeability of the units. Particle physicists, for instance, do you energy-derived units as a measure of mass--speaking of how many electron-volts a particle masses, for instance.
Mass spectroscopy is significantly different from the other spectrometers on the page. MS measures the deflection, dependant on mass, of ions in a magnetic field. The plots are of discrete ion-mass (the deflection), against how many of the corresponding atoms are present in the sample (intensity). You couldn't legimately ever put MS results in to an energy/frequency graph. I think it should be treated as an exception. -- sodium
Classification
I've made an attempt to make the haphazard list of examples a bit more structured, but I'm still not completely happy with the result. Ideally, the words in the name of a branch (e.g., X-ray electron spectroscopy), should each fit under one of the four classification schemes. However, in this example, X-ray refers to the frequency parameter AND the measurement process and electron refers to the measurable quantity AND the physical process. Merging into two general classifications does not work, because 'Fourier transform spectroscopy' wouldn't fit.
I'm not sure either that it was a good idea to move everything under electromagnetic spectroscopy to a separate page.
Any suggestions? -- Hankwang 19:03, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Your new classification scheme for spectroscopy isnt dichotomizing very well. Im considering reverting, but it would be better if you could clean it up. Bensaccount 02:49, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)
History/Intro
It is not necessary to include the history of spectra on this page. Bensaccount 02:32, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Maybe a history is too much, but according to Wikipedia:The_perfect_article, an article should have an introduction that is comprehensible to nonspecialists without having to look up other articles. I quote:
- The perfect Wikipedia article ...begins with a definition or clear description of the subject at hand. This is made as absolutely clear to the nonspecialist as the subject matter itself will allow. ... does not leave essential terminology unexplained, even within the article itself. If some piece of terminology is essential to the subject itself, then it should be explained in the article about that subject, even if it is also explained on another page as well.
- The current introduction is too short. -- Hankwang 13:30, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)
SPR
My wife, a biochem major, was looking for a definition of SPR spectroscopy here, but didn't find one. Is it under a different name, or does it need to be added to the article? Jwrosenzweig 01:32, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Redirect Emission Spectroscopy to Photoemission spectroscopy?
Should the newly inserted link to Emission Spectroscopy be redirected to the Photoemission spectroscopy article ? H Padleckas 04:27, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)