
When white light passes through a prism, it bends and refracts, separating into its component colours. This phenomenon is known as dispersion. Each colour has a different wavelength, and each wavelength bends at a different angle, resulting in the formation of a spectrum of seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. This dispersion of light occurs because the angle of refraction, or bending, of different colours varies when passing through a transparent medium like a glass prism.
Characteristics | Values |
---|---|
Phenomenon | Refraction |
Reason | Change in speed of light as it travels from one medium to another |
Result | White light splits into its constituent colours |
Colours | Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet |
Acronym | ROYGBIV |
What You'll Learn
White light refracts
When white light travels through a prism, it refracts. This means that the light bends as it passes through the prism, causing the different colours that make up white light to become separated. This phenomenon is known as the dispersion of light.
White light is made up of a mixture of wavelengths of light, and each wavelength refracts at a slightly different angle. When white light passes through a prism, each wavelength bends at a different angle, causing the light to split into its component colours. This can be seen as a rainbow, with the colours of the rainbow being, in order of increasing wavelength, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
The velocity of light in a material medium depends on its colour (or wavelength). This is known as the refractive index of the material, and it is different for different colours. When a ray of white light passes through a prism, the different colours are deviated through different angles, causing them to separate.
The angle of refraction in a particular medium is defined by its index of refraction, which is derived by dividing the speed of light in a vacuum by its speed in that medium. When light passes from one medium to another, the angle of refraction can be calculated by comparing the indices of refraction of the two materials. This relationship is known as Snell's Law, after the 17th-century physicist who discovered it.
The dispersion of white light through a prism was central to Isaac Newton's formulation of the theory of optics and the wave nature of light. Newton arbitrarily split the spectrum into seven colours, in deference to the ancient Greeks, who considered seven a mystical number.
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White light bends
When white light passes through a prism, it bends. This bending of light is called refraction and it occurs when light passes through one substance or medium and into another with a different speed of light—for example, from air into glass or water. Light travels more slowly in a denser medium, so it changes direction, or refracts, when it passes through the interface.
White light is made up of a mixture of all the wavelengths of light, and each wavelength refracts, or bends, at a slightly different angle. This is because the velocity of light in a material medium depends on its colour, or wavelength. So, when a beam of white light passes through a prism, it is separated into its component colours. This is called dispersion.
The angle of refraction in a particular medium is defined by its index of refraction—a property derived by dividing the speed of light in a vacuum by the speed of light in that medium. When light passes from one medium to another, the angle of refraction can be derived by dividing the indices of refraction of the two media. This relationship is known as Snell's Law, after the 17th-century physicist who discovered it.
The colours of the rainbow, in order of increasing wavelength, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This can be remembered with the acronym ROYGBIV.
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Dispersion of light
The dispersion of light can be observed in many natural phenomena, such as the formation of rainbows. Rainbows occur when sunlight (white light) strikes water droplets suspended in the air, causing the light to refract and disperse into its constituent colours. The light then undergoes total internal reflection, causing the light rays to fall on the front of the droplet and emerge from the back. The rainbow pattern is made up of seven colours, with red light at the bottom and violet light at the top. This is because the wavelength of red light is higher, causing it to deviate the least, while violet light has a lower wavelength and deviates the most.
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White light is a mixture of seven colours
When white light travels through a prism, it disperses into its constituent colours. This phenomenon is called the dispersion of light. White light is made up of seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. This can be remembered using the acronym VIBGYOR.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered in 1666 that white light consists of seven colours. This discovery was made through Newton's inverted prism experiment, which showed that a beam of white light, when passed through a prism, splits into seven colours. This occurs because different colours have different velocities in a material medium, meaning they deviate through different angles.
The dispersion of light is a natural phenomenon that can be observed in rainbows. Rainbows form when sunlight, which contains all seven colours of the rainbow, passes through water droplets in the atmosphere. The water droplets act as prisms, refracting sunlight into its constituent colours and creating the colourful arc we see in the sky.
It is important to note that the human eye perceives white light as a single colour because the different colours that make it up have a similar intensity to the eye's colour receptors. However, when white light is passed through a prism, the different colours are deviated through different angles, allowing us to see them separately.
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Refractive index of a material
The refractive index of a material is a property that describes how the material affects the speed of light travelling through it. It is usually represented by the symbol n, or sometimes μ. The refractive index, n, of a material is defined as n = cv, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum and v is the speed of light in the material.
The refractive index determines how much a ray of light changes direction when it travels from one medium to another. This is described by Snell's law of refraction: n1 sin θ1 = n2 sin θ2, where θ1 and θ2 are the angle of incidence and angle of refraction, respectively, of a ray crossing the interface between two media with refractive indices n1 and n2. The refractive index also determines the amount of light that is reflected when it reaches the interface, as well as the critical angle for total internal reflection.
The refractive index may vary with wavelength, causing white light to split into its constituent colours when refracted. This is called dispersion and can be observed in prisms and rainbows. The velocity of light in a material medium depends on its colour (wavelength), i.e. the refractive index of a material is different for different colours. When a ray of white light passes through a prism, the different colours are deviated through different angles, causing white light to split into its constituent colours.
In general, an index of refraction is a complex number with both a real and imaginary part, where the latter indicates the strength of absorption loss at a particular wavelength. The refractive index of a material is an important property, as it determines the focusing power of lenses, the dispersive power of prisms, and the reflectivity of lens coatings, among other things.
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Frequently asked questions
White light refracts when it passes through a prism. Each wavelength of light bends at a different angle, and the emergent light forms a rainbow.
Refraction is a phenomenon that occurs when a beam of white light passes through the interface between substances of different densities, such as air and glass or water. Light travels more slowly in denser media, so it changes direction when it passes through the interface.
The different colours that make up white light become separated. This happens because each colour has a particular wavelength, and each wavelength bends at a different angle. The light that emerges from the prism forms a spectrum of seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.