Skip to main content Skip to navigation
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder
Physics Undergraduate Labs
College of Arts and Sciences
  • Home
  • Resources
    Demos and Equipment Help Room
  • Courses
  • People
  • Report a Lab Issue
  • Search
  • Log In
  1. Home
  2. Physics Demonstrations and Equipment
  3. Optics
  4. Color
  5. Dispersion

Dispersion Concept

Demonstrations in Dispersion

Kodak slide projector with circular slit holder, equilateral plexiglass prism on platform, and white sketch paper on blackboard showing dispersed rainbow spectrum in darkened room

Action of a Prism

Demonstrates dispersion of white light through a prism, showing that refractive index depends on wavelength. Students observe the continuous visible spectrum produced when shorter wavelengths (violet) refract more than longer …
Three clear glass prisms with triangular cross-sections arranged in a row on dark surface, increasing in width from left to right, each 4 cm tall with 4 cm sides

Achromatic Prism

Three combinable prisms of different materials demonstrate how chromatic aberration can be corrected. The smallest and largest prisms combined produce deflection without dispersion (achromatic prism). The two smallest combined produce …

Physics Undergraduate Laboratories
Department of Physics
390 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309

Be Boulder.

University of Colorado Boulder

© Regents of the University of Colorado

Privacy • Legal & Trademarks • Campus Map