Which refracts more red or blue

As you said, it just separates out the different colors that are already there. The most accurate scientific explanation for HOW refraction actually works is a theory called quantum electrodynamics.

That theory is a difficult subject, too detailed for me to explain here, but maybe I can give you a feel for what happens in a prism. The different colors of light all travel at roughly the same speed in air. In glass, however, this is not true. Blue light gets slowed down by glass more than red light. As a result of their different speeds in the glass, the red and blue light get bent at different angles when they go into the prism. This separates blue from red, and in fact it separates all of the colors we can see.

Perhaps you are wondering "So why do different colors travel at different speeds in glass? There is a book called QED by Richard Feynman that would probably be the best place to start learning about quantum electrodynamics if you are curious to learn more.

Most books about this subject require a lot of studying and math, but this one is written for people who are just curious but don't have the time or patience to learn all the details. How does a prism reflect light into the colors of the rainbow? Show answers Print Version with answers. Teacher Summary The simulation doesn't have the precision needed to show change in speed for different frequencies in a refractive medium.

This activity complements the material covered in Refraction - Turning Light. Answer Red. Answer Answer 1. Answer Orange. Answer 2. Answer Yellow. Answer 3. Answer Green. Answer 4. A rainbow is produced by dispersion and internal reflection of light in water droplets in the atmosphere.

White light from the sun enters a spherical raindrop. The different colors are refracted through different angles, reflected off the back of the drop, and then refracted again when they emerge from the drop.

The white light now has been dispersed into its component colors, and the different colors travel in slightly different directions. You see red light coming from water droplets higher in the sky than violet light. The other colors are found between these, making a rainbow.

In the figure to the right and below, red light arrives at the eye of the observer from the upper drop and violet light from the lower drop. Other raindrops yield the other colors.