The New Student's Reference Work/Zeeman Effect

Zee'man Effect, an important relation between light and magnetism, discovered by Zeeman of Holland in 1897. This relation is as follows: Zeeman found that if a flame colored with ordinary table-salt — the so-called sodium flame — is placed between the poles of a strong electromagnet and examined with a powerful spectroscope, the appearance of the sodium lines is very much changed. Later investigations show that spectral lines are tripled when the source of light is in a magnetic field and also that the components of the triplet are polarized. For details consult Michelson's article in The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. VII, pp. 131-8 (1898).