What is “dispersion of white light”? Draw a labelled diagram to illustrate the recombination of the spectrum of white light. Why it is essential that the two prisms used for the purpose should be identical and placed in an inverted position with respect to each other?


The phenomenon of splitting white light into its components colours (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red) while passing through a transparent medium like glass prism is known as the dispersion of light.


When a glass prism is placed in the path of a narrow beam of white light, it gets dispersed into its seven constituent colours and a spectrum is obtained. Now, when a second identical prism is placed in an inverted position with respect to the first prism, it recombines the spectrum obtained by the first prism and a beam of white light is obtained again.

It is essential that the two prisms used for the recombination of the spectrum of white light should be identical and placed in an inverted position with respect to each other because the refraction produced by the second prism is equal and opposite to that produced by the first prism.

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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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