ICSE Class 10 Answered

state Newton's experiment of spectrum?

Asked by waliaman704 | 29 Jul, 2021, 06:57: PM

Expert Answer

Newton began his experiments by making a small circular hole in one of the window shutters of his room at Cambridge.

Light from the sun streamed through this hole and made a circular white patch on the opposite wall.

On placing a triangular glass prism before the hole, an elongated coloured patch of light was formed on the wall.

Newton called this a spectrum, and noted that the colours formed were in the order Red, Orange, Yellow,

Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet .

The theory which he put forward to explain the spectrum was that white light consists of a mixture of seven different colours,

The refractive index of glass is different for each colour, so that when white light falls on the prism each colour in it is refracted

at a different angle, with the result that the colours are spread out to form a spectrum.

It should be noted that when the light is incident on the prism as shown in Figure, it is refracted towards the base of the prism,

the violet being deviated most and the red least.

The separation of white light into its component colours by a prism is called dispersion.

Answered by Thiyagarajan K | 29 Jul, 2021, 08:14: PM

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