What happens when white light passes through a glass prism?
It splits into a band of seven colours
White light is a mixture of seven component wavelengths ranging from red (longest) to violet (shortest). When it enters a denser medium like a glass prism, each wavelength slows down and bends by a slightly different amount because the refractive index of glass depends on wavelength.
Violet, having the shortest wavelength, bends the most; red, with the longest wavelength, bends the least. As a result, the incoming beam emerges from the prism spread out into a coloured band called a spectrum - violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red (VIBGYOR).
This phenomenon is called dispersion of light, first demonstrated by Isaac Newton. The light does not become invisible, nor does a single prism recombine the beam, nor does it turn into just one shade.
Hence, white light passing through a glass prism splits into a band of seven colours.
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