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Prism refracting light into a spectrum, illustration
Prism refracting light into a colour spectrum, illustration. A ray of white light from a ray box (left) passes through a lens (blue) and strikes the triangular prism, refracting onto the right hand face. At this face, the light is refracted again, exiting the prism and forming the colour spectrum projected onto a screen (right). Red light is refracted least and appears at one end of the spectrum, whilst violet light is refracted the most and appears at the other end. The spectrum is a result of the different amounts of refraction of the different wavelengths found in white light, resolving it into its component colours. This is a version of an experiment by Isaac Newton, showing light to be composed of a range of different colours., by SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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