Calibration And Resolution Make The Spectrum Visible

Calibration Maps Energy to Channel

A calibrated channel is exact affine bookkeeping. Exact arithmetic here means exact results for the stated model inputs; measured inputs still carry uncertainty and significant-figure limits.

highlighted = computed this step

Calibration maps line energy to a detector channel

The line energy is 5 joules, the scale is 2 channels per joule, and the offset is 1 channel.

channel=2⋅5+1channel=2\cdot 5 + 1
Calibration ledgerThis is exact channel bookkeeping, not spectrometer optics.E=5 Jscale=2 channels/Joffset=1 channelschannel=11lowerupper5

The computed channel is an integer

The checked channel is 11.

channel=10+1=11channel=10 + 1=11
Channel resultA non-integer or stale channel would fail validation.E=5 Jscale=2 channels/Joffset=1 channelschannel=11lowerupper5