Spectroscopes

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Spectroscopes

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Spectroscopes

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Title:	Spectroscopes
Author:	Jensen, William B.
Description:	In late 1666 Sir Isaac Newton first performed his famous experiment demonstrating that white light was actually a mixture of seven basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (figure 1). This was done by passing a ray of white light through a glass prism and projecting the result on a white surface. On passage through the glass of the prism the light was refracted, which is to say, both its speed and direction of motion were altered. As we now know, the degree of refraction or the change in direction depends not only on the refractive index of the glass but also on the wavelength of the light itself, causing each color to emerge from the prism at slightly different angle and thereby resolving any mixture of wavelengths into its basic components (figure 2).
Bookmark:	http://hdl.handle.net/2374.UC/734057
Date:	2014-11-25