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Learn how Sir Isaac Newton proved that white light is made of all the colours of the rainbow by using two prisms. Watch a video and see diagrams of the experiment and the results.
Learn how white light is separated into its colors by a prism due to refraction and Snell's law. Explore the applications and natural phenomena of dispersion and scattering of light, such as rainbows and the color of the sky.
A prism is a piece of glass or other transparent material that can separate white light into its colours or reflect light. Learn about the functions, types, and history of prisms from Britannica.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
A dispersive prism can be used to break white light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow) to form a spectrum as described in the following section. Other types of prisms noted below can be used to reflect light, or to split light into components with different polarizations .
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Explore the history and science of color from Newton's prism to camouflage. Learn how color is perceived, measured, and used in nature, art, and technology.
Visible light, also known as white light, consists of a collection of component colors. These colors are often observed as light passes through a triangular prism. Upon passage through the prism, the white light is separated into its component colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
