Sakshi Education
Richard Feynman, a famous Physicist and nobel laurate was once gazing at a ‘Rainbow’ in the sky keenly as if he had never seen it before or as if it may be the last. His collegue asked him with all the curiosity why he was staring at the rainbow as if he is seeing it for the first time. The great genius without turning his head, told "because it is beautiful !". The principle behind the formation of a Rainbow is ‘Dispersion of Light’.It is all due to the Newton...
On a fatefulday, when Isaac Newton, the famous physicist passed the Sun's rays, through a glass prism, the light ray (white light) was split into seven of its constituent colours ‘VIBGYOR’, the beautiful colours which we find in the Rainbow glass prism in those days was used as a paper weight. Glass prism is made of transparent glass with five faces (Pancha mukhi), two of them are trianglar and the remaining three are rectangular, each edge making an angle of 600 (Equilateral Prism) Light ray (White light) travelling in a straight path bends or changes its path when it is passing through a prism splits into seven of its constituent colours Voilet (V), Indigo (I), Blue (B), Green (G), Yellow (Y), Orange (O) and red (R) and each colour has its own wavelength (Light is a wave) Each coloured ray will deviate (bend) along different path and this process of splitting a ray of white light into seven of its constituent colours is called ‘Dispersion’. The violet colour having least wavelength will deviate to maximum extent and where as the red colour with maximum wavelength will deviate less. The rest of the colours deviate in between them.
The coloured pattern VIBGYOR is called Spectrum.
The Instrument which produces and measures the spectrum is called spectrometer.
When different substances are heated to their incandescence and the light emitted is passed through a Prism of the Spectometer each substance will give its characteristic spectrium. This branch of Physics in which the ‘spectra’ of different substances are studied and analysed is called ‘Spectroscopy’ which revolutionised the experimental physics.
Spectra - is the 'finger prints' of MATTER.
See how a crucial experiment conducted with a glass prism (Which was used as a paper weight in those days) by Isaac Newton has revolutionised the scientific outlook!
Published date : 26 Nov 2013 12:31PM
