Prism Light Dispersion Simulator
Classroom worksheet · Interactive simulation: https://lkforge.com/tools/physics/prism/
Name: Date:
Learning objectives
- Explain dispersion of white light.
- Relate refraction to wavelength.
- Order the visible colors by how much they bend.
Variables to change
- Incidence angle
- Prism material
- Wavelength composition
Procedure
- Send white light into the prism and observe the spectrum that emerges.
- Note the order of the colors from least to most bent.
- Change the incidence angle and observe the spread.
Observations
Record the color order in the emerging spectrum and how the spread changes with angle.
Questions
- Why does a prism split white light into colors?
- Which color bends the most? The least?
- What is white light made of?
- Would a prism disperse light of a single color?
- How is a rainbow related to this?
Answer key (instructors)
- 1. The refractive index depends on wavelength (dispersion), so each color bends by a different amount.
- 2. Violet bends the most (higher index), red the least.
- 3. A mixture of all visible wavelengths (colors).
- 4. No — a single wavelength refracts by one amount and stays one color, just deviated.
- 5. Water droplets refract and disperse sunlight the same way a prism does, separating it into colors.
A prism bends light by refraction, and because the refractive index varies with wavelength (dispersion), each color bends differently — violet most, red least — spreading white light into a spectrum, the same physics behind rainbows.