Difference between dispersion of light and rarefaction
Answers
Scattering is a general physical process. If you throw your cellphone on the ground, it shall break and its parts shall scatter. Depending upon the energy you put in, the particles shall scatter more or less.
For light, the energy is determined by its frequency/wavelength. Higher frequency waves tends to scatter more than the lower ones. However, the medium also plays a crucial role in scattering.
The size of the particle often defines which light shall be scattered most.
where r is its characteristic length (radius) and λ is the wavelength of the light.
Dispersion is a special case of scattering, where all wavelengths are scattered proportionately and evenly.
White light is composed of several colors of spectrum, which are broadly classified as VIBGYOR (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red).
When you pass the light though a clear crystalline/uniform structure, the white light splits (scatters evenly) into these colors. This simply occurs due to refraction. Angle of refraction (you might consider this scattering) depends on the frequency of the wavelength of the light. Violet having the highest frequency, refracts the most, and red having the least, refracts the least.
You might have observed these in day to day objects, when light passes through glass windows or even simply water bottles, or glass beads.
Rainbows occur when light passes through water droplets in clouds.
However, scattering is what makes the sky behind that rainbow, and the water below look blue.