We present here a discovery-based laboratory project that introduces elementary quantum mechanical concepts using the spectral distributions of natural and artificial light sources. The measured emission spectra of sunlight and interior/exterior lighting are explained using the electromagnetic spectrum, the phenomenon of blackbody radiation, and the quantization of light. This 4–5 week experiment is appropriate for the general chemistry laboratory or can be expanded for use in upper division chemistry laboratories, and it uses modern spectroradiometric equipment that is readily available and increasingly used in the physical and biological sciences.
Rechtsteiner et al. (Sat,) studied this question.