Solved cryptogram
Potassium burns with a lilac flame, and a chemist can name a metal by the color of its fire.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
Heat pushes electrons into higher energy states, and when they drop back they emit light at wavelengths fixed by the element. Sodium gives a strong yellow, copper a blue green, strontium a deep red and potassium a pale lilac that a sodium contamination will drown out. The same principle scaled up lets astronomers read the composition of a star from its spectrum.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 72 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length72 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 76 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters