Name : ________________________________

Teachers name: Tan Siu Mei

Class
: Y8B
Lesson No. : 42
Date
: 13.10. 2011
Time
: 11.40am-12.55pm

SERI OMEGA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Subject
Chapter / Topic
Subtopics

:
:
:

Science
Chapter 8: Light
8.7 The dispersion of white light - The Prism and The Spectrum

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.7 The dispersion of white light

Define the dispersion of white light.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
The Prism and The Spectrum
The prism is a __________or _______________with a ____________crosssection. It is used to _______________________ into its colours. Because of its
shape, the prism ______________ the light __________ in the same direction,
once when the light _________ the prism and again when the light
___________ the air. This splits the light into the colours it is made from.
The rainbow colour is called a _________________.
The colours in the spectrum are always in the same order:

__________ ________________________________________________________
Activity 1:
Shine a beam of white light into the prism and record the colour form on the white screen.

Colours of the spectrum:

Ray box

White
light

i)

______________

ii)

______________

iii)

______________

iv)

______________

v)

______________

vi)

______________

vii)

______________

Screen
Prism made
of clear
plastic /
glass

 One way to remember the order of the colours is to use this phase:
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.
Based on the activity, we can conclude that red light bends _____________ and the violet light
bends ________________
The difference in refraction spreads the colours.

Exercise
1. What is a triangular prism?
_______________________________________________________________________
2. How is triangular prism used to show that white light can be split into colours?
_______________________________________________________________________
3. What are the seven colours that made up the white light?
_______________________________________________________________________
4. Which colour refracts the most when a white light beam shines through a prism?
_____________________________________
5. Which colour refracts the least when a white light beam shines through a prism?
______________________________________________________________________

Rainbows
Rainbows are formed when rays of light from the Sun are
___________in water droplets.
The water droplets act like _______________, sunlight is
Refracted as it _________ and _________ the water droplets.
Different colours are refracted by different ___________,
So the colours spread out, making a _______________
To see a rainbow, you have to
i)

Stand with you ________ to the sunlight.

ii)

The angle between the direction of the sunlight and

your line of sight to the raindrop must
be about _____________.

Activity 2:
Making an artificial rainbow with a mist of drops from a garden hose.

Questions:
1. What do you do to see the rainbows?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. Give two examples where you can see the spectrum ( apart from when it is raining and sunny at
the same time, and by using the prism.)
i)

_________________________________________________________________

ii)

_________________________________________________________________

Combination of the colours of a spectrum

There is a very important experiment done by our respected scientist, Isaac Newton
(1642-1727) regarding the dispersion of white light. He passed the white light though
the prism and split it into the colours. He then passed the separated colours though a
second prism and recombined them to produce white light.
There are two ways to combine the colours of the spectrum:
A) By using a second prism
When a white light passes though a prism, it _____________ up the colours. When
another prism is placed after the spectrum, the colours _____________ to become white
light again.

B) By spinning a colour wheel ( Newtons Disc)

When the colour wheel is turned quickly, the colours appear to mix and the wheel
looks ________

Activity 3 :
Students are required to set up an experiment as shown in the figure.

Procedure:
1. Set up a ray box and a prism as shown.
2. Shine a beam of light through the prism and onto the screen. You should see some colours
on the screen. ( You may have to adjust the prism to see the colours clearly.)
3. List the colours you see on the screen, starting from the colour nearest to the point X.
_____________________________________________________________________
4. Place a second prism as shown in the diagram below.

What is the colour formed? What has the second prism done?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________