Link discoveries

What is important about the color of minerals:
I have a lot of minerals in my house and it was interesting to read about the origin of the color is my minerals. I never really thought about why they have this color. The explanation is often less romantic than I pictured though.

Luminescence:
An interesting summary about how light is created. Also something a never really thought about. I especially liked the example " If you lift a rock, your muscles are supplying energy to raise the rock to a higher-energy position. If you then drop the rock, the energy you supplied is released, some of it in the form of sound, as it drops back to its original low-energy position. It is somewhat the same with luminescence, with electrical attraction replacing gravity, the atomic nucleus replacing the earth, an electron replacing the rock, and light replacing the sound."

Spectra of Gas discharges:
I don't really get this.I know we talked about it in class, but I need a more simplistic explanation..

Colors of elements in a flame:
This is beautiful and it comes more to life now. To bad I borrowed a computer and it doesn't have the program to see the movies. But I like to go back to this site sometimes.