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Science
Chapter 8: Light
8.7 The dispersion of white light - The Prism and The Spectrum
__________ ________________________________________________________
Activity 1:
Shine a beam of white light into the prism and record the colour form on the white screen.
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?
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2. How is triangular prism used to show that white light can be split into colours?
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3. What are the seven colours that made up the white light?
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4. Which colour refracts the most when a white light beam shines through a prism?
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5. Which colour refracts the least when a white light beam shines through a prism?
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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)
ii)
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?
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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)
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ii)
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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.
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4. Place a second prism as shown in the diagram below.
What is the colour formed? What has the second prism done?
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