Question

As you may already know, white light is composed of all the colors of the rainbow. Although we’ve talked about index of refraction of a material as being a single number, in reality, the index of refraction for each material varies slightly depending on the wavelength of light incident on the material. For example, the index of refraction of red light through glass is n = 1.509 while blue light through glass has n = 1.517. Use this information to explain, in a few sentences, generally how a prism works.

Using your answer to the previous question, why are diamond rings (navg = 2.417) generally considered to be prettier than an identical ring made out of plain glass?

Answer 1

When white light enters a prism and since white light is composed of seven basic colors, these colors are split into their spectral components on entering the prism due to the fact that the refractive indices for different colors are different for a prism. Hence the components on being refracted at different angles emerge out of a prism forming a constituent-color spectrum like a rainbow.

Diamond rings are generally considered prettier because of the fact that plain glass separates the constituent colors like a rainbow while a in a diamond due to numerous edges will have a total internal reflection of the light entering it, thus the diamond would sparkle/shine in stead of forming a rainbow.

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