Question

Explain Newton's experiment with suitable diagram.
$\left[5\text{marks}\right]$

Answer 1

In Newton's experiment, the white light from the sun is allowed to enter a dark room through a small aperture in a window and let it fall on a glass prism. The light emerging out of the prism is captured on a white screen. On the screen, a coloured patch like that of a rainbow as shown in the diagram was obtained, termed as a spectrum. The order of colours in the spectrum on the screen from the bottom is Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. $\left[3\text{marks}\right]$

The experiment concluded that white light consists of seven prominent colours, and each colour corresponds to a small range of wavelengths i.e., white light consists of a large range of wavelengths, hence it is polychromatic in nature. $\left[2\text{marks}\right]$