Can the fact that magnesium produces a bright light in a flame be used to identify it? (1 Viewer)

wizzkids

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I think you are referring to combustion of Mg, which gives a very bright white light. No, the white light from burning Mg in oxygen is not a line spectrum. It is a continuous spectrum given off by the hot particles of MgO, which emit a broad continuous spectrum. The characteristic line emission spectrum of Mg is very faint. Here is a graph of the spectrum given off by burning magnesium:spectrum.jpg
The sharp lines are the atomic emissions of Mg, superimposed on the broad continuous spectrum. Burning magnesium was once used in photography, for "flash photography" precisely because it gives off a bright white continuous spectrum.
 

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