Question

Explain, why white light is dispersed when passing through a prism.

Answer 1

The velocity of light in a material medium depends upon this color (wavelength) i.e. the refractive index of a material is different for different colors. If we incident a ray of white light on a prism; on emerging, the different colors are deviated through different angles. Due to this, white light splits into its constituent colors and the phenomenon is called dispersion.