Question

What is dispersion of light?

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Answer 1

Explanation:

Dispersion of light is the splitting of white light into its constituent colors due to the refractive index of the surface and the wavelength of the light. If the light entering the prism is not of a single colour then the emergent beam also has different colours arranged in a definite order.

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Answer 2

What is Dispersion of Light?

• When white light is passed through a glass prism it splits into its spectrum of colours (in order violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red) and this process of white light splitting into its constituent colours is termed as dispersion.

The simplest way to explain dispersion is through dispersion in the prism.

Refraction Of Light Through Prism

How is light refracted through a glass prism?

• When light travels from one medium to another, the speed of its propagation changes, as a result, it ‘bends’ or is ‘refracted’. Now when light passes through a prism, it is refracted towards the base of the triangle. Refraction Of Light Through Prism is well illustrated in the diagram given above.

• The different colours in the spectrum of light have different wavelengths. Therefore, the speed with which they all bend varies depending on this wavelength, where violet bends the most, having the shortest wavelength and red bends the least, having the longest wavelength.

Because of this, the dispersion of white light into its spectrum of colours takes place when refracted through a prism.

Visible Light Spectrum

Why does light split into its spectrum of colours in a prism but not in a glass slab?

Actually, light does disperse into its spectrum of colours in a glass slab as well. We can see this if we observe it in a particular way. Before we proceed you should know something about refractive indices. They aren’t constant. They vary with the frequency of light and hence the wavelength.