This is completely irrelevant to this topic, but it's in the forensic chemistry option topic ..
Can someone please simplify the process of Mass Spectrometry ???!!!
Thank you very much appreciated
A mass spectrometer is a machine that smashes molecules into bits and then weighs the pieces. Molecules break in predictable ways. For example, when the mass spectrum of ethane is taken (see http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?Spec=C74840&Index=0&Type=Mass), there are a bunch of peaks at 30 (where it hasn't broken), 29, 28 (a big one), 27, 26 and 25 - corresponding to the loss of one or more hydrogen atoms. Then there are a couple of peaks at 15 and 14, corresponding to the molecule breaking in half (C2H6 -> two CH3 bits) and one of the CH3 bits losing a hydrogen.
