A prism turns white light into a rainbow. Because glass bends violet more than red, each color emerges at a slightly different angle — Newton's classic experiment.
Prism DispersionLive
refraction varies with wavelength
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A prism bends violet light more than red because the refractive index depends on wavelength — splitting white light into a rainbow, exactly as Newton showed.
Reading this result: At 1× dispersion and a 35° exit angle, each wavelength refracts by a slightly different amount, splitting white light into an ordered ROYGBIV band.
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How it works
Dispersion arises because a material's refractive index varies with wavelength, so shorter (violet) wavelengths refract more than longer (red) ones. This splits white light into its spectrum and explains rainbows, chromatic aberration, and spectroscopy.
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