Refraction by a prism

• When light is refracted by a prism, the incidence ray is not parallel to the emergent ray, since the prism’s sides are not parallel.

  
• If a beam of white light is passed through a prism it is dispersed into a spectrum.

  
• White light is a mixture of colors, and the prism refracts each color by a different amount – red is deviated least & violet most

  
• Monochromatic light is that of a single frequency and colour.

  
• The visible spectrum of light is acronymed as ROYGBIV