What is the prism doing to the white light? Try to explain your own ideas based on the evidence you have collected in these activities.
What to use
Light box (with 12 V lamp), a slit to place on the light box to make a single narrow beam of light, 0–12 V power supply, connecting wires and a white screen.
What to do
This activity requires a dark room, or a dark corner of the room.
- Connect the light box to the power and insert the slit to produce a single narrow ray of light.
- Shine the beam through a triangular prism to produce a spectrum on a white screen near the prism.
- Investigate the changes that occur in the colour of the lamp in the light box as the voltage of the power supply is increased from 2 V to 12 V, and the lamp gets hotter and brighter.
- Observe how the colours in the spectrum change as the temperature of the lamp gets brighter and hotter.
|
