Book excerpt from our research archive:

Visible Light


Earth Explorer
02-01-1995
Visible Light, a Riot of Colors

What exactly is light? In 1665-66, the English physicist Isaac Newton (1642-1727) turned his attention to this question. Newton had long been fascinated by the curious effects a glass prism has on sunlight. A beam of white light enters the prism on one side and exits on another side as a rainbow of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Does sunlight contain all those colors, Newton wondered, or does a prism somehow add color to the light?
To find out, Newton shone a beam of sunlight through a prism. As usual, the white sunlight became a band of colors. Then he went a step further. Next to the side of the ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

See all results. Or, try our Advanced Search.

Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 60 million articles! Access over 3,500 publications with a FREE trial!