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General ScienceScience

When a beam of white light passes through a glass prism, it splits into its component colors · This phenomenon is known as:

Reflection

Refraction

Dispersion

Diffraction

Correct Answer

🔬 SC • Science Concept & PrincipleGeneral ScienceScience

Option C

Dispersion

Quick Summary:

Dispersion is the phenomenon where white light splits into its constituent spectrum of seven colors (VIBGYOR) when passing through a prism · This happens because the refractive index of glass is different for different wavelengths of light.

🔬SCScience SolutionConcept & Principle

💡 Explanation

💡 Everyday Analogy (Real-World Intuition)

Think of it like a group of people of different heights walking through a crowd; the smaller, shorter wavelengths (like violet) 'bump' into the glass particles more often and slow down more, while longer wavelengths (like red) pass through more easily.

🧠 Memory Mnemonic / Shortcut Aid

VIBGYOR (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red)

🔢 Key Formulas

$n(\lambda) = A + \frac{B}{\lambda^2}$ — Cauchy's equation for dispersion

$\delta = (n-1)A$ — Deviation of light ray by a small-angled prism

⚙️ Working Principle

The refractive index ( $n$ ) of a medium depends on the wavelength ( $\lambda$ ) of light, a property known as Cauchy's dispersion formula · Since violet light has a shorter wavelength, it slows down more than red light in glass, causing it to deviate (bend) more significantly according to Snell's Law ( $n_1 \sin \theta_1 = n_2 \sin \theta_2$ ).

📌 Key Points

▸
Violet light undergoes the maximum deviation and has the shortest wavelength.
▸
Red light undergoes the minimum deviation and has the longest wavelength.
▸
Dispersion is essentially the angular separation of light based on wavelength.

✅ Advantages

▸
Used to identify the composition of light sources through spectroscopy.
▸
Essential for the production of visible spectrum analysis tools.

❌ Disadvantages / Limitations

▸
Causes chromatic aberration in simple lenses, leading to color fringing in images.

🛠️ Applications / Uses

▸
Formation of a rainbow in the sky.
▸
Analysis of light in spectrometers for chemical element identification.

📄 Additional Information

▸
The refractive index is inversely proportional to the wavelength of light.
▸
Option A (Reflection) involves the bouncing of light · Option B (Refraction) is the bending of light at an interface (which is the cause of dispersion, but not the name of the splitting phenomenon) · Option D (Diffraction) is the bending of light around corners or obstacles.

📊 Diagram / Illustration

✅

C is correct — The phenomenon of white light splitting into its component colors upon passing through a prism is known as dispersion.

Core Concepts Used

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Refractive Index Spectrum of Light Wavelength dependence

💡 EXAM TIP

Always remember: Frequency remains constant during refraction, but speed and wavelength change, which is the root cause of dispersion!

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