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Why do you not see a spectrum of colours when light passes through a flat pane of glass?
We can not see a spectrum of colours when light passes through a flat pane of glass because the refracted light emerges out of the glass pane without any deviation. It happens because a glass pane has two sides that are parallel to each other. When the emergent light does not deviate from its actual direction by any angle, we are unable to see the different colours of the light separated out in the form of a spectrum.
Hence, in order to view a spectrum of colours, the incident light rays have to fall on an object whose surfaces are not parallel, such as a triangular glass prism.
Explanation
The phenomenon of splitting white light into its components colours (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red) while passing through a prism is known as the Dispersion of light. In the spectrum, red is seen at the top as it has the longest wavelength whereas violet is seen at the bottom of the spectrum as it has the shortest wavelength.
The cause of the dispersion of light through the prism is because white light is a mixture of seven different colours and they get refracted (bend) at different angles in the prism medium due to differences in their speed and wavelengths. So they get separated.
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