Unit 6.3 Making Rainbows

• The correct order is: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
• How white light is made from many colours:

  • white light can be split into its component colours
  • this is called dispersion and can be done with a prism
  • the range of colours is called a spectrum and it starts with red and ends with violet
• Dispersion: the splitting of light into different colours, happens when light is refracted
• How dispersion of white light can be done with a prism?

  1. white light enters the prism
  2. it refracts (slows down and bent towards the normal)
  3. red light is the fastest so it refracts the smallest angle
  4. violet light is the slowest so it refracts the largest angle
  5. the colours speed up again and bent away from the normal