Which object causes light to split into a spectrum of colors?

Which object causes light to split into a spectrum of colors?

• A. Glass
• B. Lens
• C. Prism
• D. Mirror

Answer: (C)

Light is made of many colors, and they bend by different amounts when they pass through a material. This spreading apart of colors is dispersion. A prism uses this property with its angled surfaces and the way light slows down differently for each color, so white light fans out into a rainbow. The shorter wavelengths bend more than the longer ones, so red ends up separated from violet and the colors fill the spectrum. Glass can bend light, but it doesn’t automatically split white light into a full spectrum the way a prism does. A lens mainly changes the path of light to focus it, not to separate colors. A mirror reflects light without separating it into colors. So the prism is the best at producing a spectrum.

Light is made of many colors, and they bend by different amounts when they pass through a material. This spreading apart of colors is dispersion. A prism uses this property with its angled surfaces and the way light slows down differently for each color, so white light fans out into a rainbow. The shorter wavelengths bend more than the longer ones, so red ends up separated from violet and the colors fill the spectrum.

Glass can bend light, but it doesn’t automatically split white light into a full spectrum the way a prism does. A lens mainly changes the path of light to focus it, not to separate colors. A mirror reflects light without separating it into colors. So the prism is the best at producing a spectrum.