jacqueline olin is a chemist at the smithsonian. if, for example, you were to know an artist's work so well that you knew that artist neveused a particular pigment in all the paintings that have been studied, and there's a painting in question, one might analyze a painting to determine whether a pigment that isn't characteristic of that artist is present. x-ray fluorescence involves bombarding the atoms in the painting with x-rays, causing them to eject an electron. to see exactly how this happens, let's return to the electron team. here are the electrons in their energy levels for the element sodium. as an x-ray enters the atom, it knocks out an electron in the lowest orbital, the 1s. when this happens, some of the electrons in higher energy levels fall to lower energy levels, filling the gaps. as the electrons cascade down to lower energy levels, they give off an x-ray pattern that is characteristic of each element. instruments analyze these x-rays and identify what element is present. it's very nice to be able to quickly determin