Isaac Newton portrait in front of his treatise on optics and light, with the visible spectrum of colours projected across it. In splitting the spectru
Isaac Newton portrait in front of his treatise on optics and light, with the visible spectrum of colours projected across it. In splitting the spectrum a beam of white light strikes the prism and is dispersed onto the opposite faces. At these faces, some of the light is refracted again, exiting the prism and forming the spectrum. The spectrum is a result of the different amounts of refraction of the different wavelengths of light present. In Isaac Newton's time, it was believed that white light was colourless, and that the prism itself produced the colour. Newton's experiments convinced him that all the colours already existed in the light in a heterogeneous fashion, and that \corpuscles\" (particles) of light were fanned out because particles with different colours travelled with different speeds through the prism."
Size: 5702px × 5039px
Photo credit: © DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: adult, artwork, astronomer, astronomy, british, caucasian, colors, colours, historical, history, illustration, isaac, light, male, man, mathematician, mathematics, newton, optical, opticks, optics, physicist, physics, portrait, rainbow, refraction, science, spectra, spectrum, text, wavelength, white
