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The splitting of white light into its seven constituent colours is called?
A. Reflection
B. Refraction
C. Dispersion
D. Absorption
Correct Answer Is Option = Dispersion
Notes / Explanation
The splitting of white light into its seven constituent colours is called dispersion, and it is a beautiful and important phenomenon in the study of light. Although ordinary white light, such as the light of the Sun, appears to be a single colourless light, it is in fact made up of a mixture of several different colours blended together. When white light passes through a transparent object of a particular shape, such as a triangular block of glass known as a prism, it is separated into a band of distinct colours arranged in a fixed order, and this band of colours is known as the spectrum. The seven colours that are commonly identified in the spectrum are usually listed in a familiar sequence ranging from the colour at one end of the band to the colour at the other end. The reason that white light splits into these colours is that each colour travels at a slightly different speed when it passes through the glass, and as a result each colour bends by a slightly different amount when the light is refracted on entering and leaving the prism. Because the different colours bend by different amounts, they emerge separated from one another, producing the spread of colours that can be seen. Dispersion is closely related to the phenomenon of refraction, since it is the difference in the bending of the various colours that causes them to separate. The most spectacular natural example of dispersion is the rainbow, which appears in the sky when sunlight passes through tiny droplets of water in the air after rain. Each droplet acts like a small prism, bending and separating the sunlight into its component colours, and the combined effect of countless droplets produces the great arc of colours that stretches across the sky. The study of dispersion helped scientists to understand the true nature of light and to realise that white light is not a simple, pure form of light but a combination of many colours. This understanding has had a lasting influence on the science of optics and on the study of colour. For PPSC and other competitive examinations, the key points to remember are that dispersion is the splitting of white light into its constituent colours, that it occurs when light passes through a prism because different colours bend by different amounts, that the resulting band of colours is called the spectrum, and that the rainbow is a natural example of dispersion.
