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How do you make a rainbow? The most common method is to put a prism in a sunny window. If you don't have bright sunshine and try to use artificial light such as a desk lamp or torch, the results are most likely to be disappointing. There are other, more reliable, methods. This kit provides the apparatus and instructions for creating clear spectra in the absence of bright sunlight.
The kit includes:
Newton first used the word spectrum (Latin for "appearance" or "apparition") in print in 1671 in describing his experiments in optics. Newton observed that when a narrow beam of sunlight strikes the face of a glass prism at an angle, some is reflected and some of the beam passes into and through the glass, emerging as different colored bands. Newton hypothesized that light was made up of "corpuscles" (particles) of different colors, and that the different colors of light moved at different speeds in transparent matter, with red light moving more quickly in glass than violet light. The result is that red light was bent (refracted) less sharply than violet light as it passed through the prism, creating a spectrum of colors.
Supports the National Curriculum
Light and sound
3. The behaviour of light
- a that light travels in a straight line at a finite speed in a uniform medium
- b that non-luminous objects are seen because light scattered from them
enters the eye
- c how light is reflected at plane surfaces
- d how light is refracted at the boundary between two different materials
- e that white light can be dispersed to give a range of colours
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