SPECTRUM AND SPECTRAL COLOURS:

The phenomenon of splitting of white light into its constituent colours is known is dispersion.

The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to (can be detected
by) the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or
simply light.

“The colour band obtained on a screen on passing white light through a prism, is called the spectrum.

Dispersion produced in a Prism:

When white light is passed through a prism, it is split into its constituent colours. This phenomenon is
called as Dispersion. The band of colours thus obtained is called as “SPECTRUM”. The well known
colours in this band are Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
 • Cause: When white light is incident on the surface of a prism, light of different colours is
refracted or deviated through different angles. Thus the dispersion or splitting of whight light
into its constituent colours takes place.

Deviation produced by a triangular prism

This phenomenon can be observed in a lab environment using a triangular glass prism.

A prism is a solid structure having three rectangular and two triangular surfaces. Any two rectangular
faces are the refracting surfaces and the third one is the base. The angle between the refracting
surfaces is the angle of the prism or refracting angle. The edge formed by the two refracting surfaces
is the refracting edge as shown in the diagram.

When a light ray enters one refracting surface of the prism, it bends towards the normal and when it
emerges out of the other refracting surface it bends away from the normal. The angle between the
incident ray and the emergent ray is the angle of deviation.

∠i + ∠e = ∠A + ∠d

A is the angle of the prism

d is the angle of deviation

• NEWTON’S EXPERIMENTS:

1. Prism itself does not produce colours

2. Recombination of colours
NEWTON’S COLOUR DISC: Take a circular cardboard disc or a circular metallic disc
Divide it into seven sectors and paint each sector of a particular with a ratio of the
Amount of colours found in the sunlight of solar spectrum in the same order in
Which they occur [VIBGYOR]. Rotate the disc with a high speed in the vertical plane.
As the speed of rotation is increased, the sectors of colours are no longer separately
Visible and a sensation of dull white colour is produced.
This is because of the persistence of vision of the human eye.
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM:

The portion of spectrum beyond the red end is called the infrared spectrum, while
The portion of spectrum just before the violet end is called the ultraviolet spectrum.

The speed ‘c’, frequency ‘γ’ and wavelength ‘λ’ are related by
The complete electromagnetic spectrum in the increasing order of wavelengths or
decreasing order of their frequencies is:
Gamma rays, X-rays, Ultraviolet rays, Visible light, Infrared radiations, Microwaves and
Radio waves.

Scattering of light: Sun light travelling through the earth’s atmosphere

[clouds, water droplets and dust] changes its direction by the
atmospheric particles. This is called scattering.
Scattering can be described as the process of absorption and then re-
emission of light energy.
 Some of the consequences of Scattering of light: [NOT IN REDUCED
SYLLABUS]

1. The atmosphere scatters the colours in sunlight one by one, starting at the violet
end of the spectrum. The scattering of light depends upon the wavelength of light.
The wavelength of red colour is more than the wavelength of violet colour. So the blue
colour is scattered more than the blue colour. When the Sun is high in the sky, only the
violet, indigo, blue and a little green is scattered, producing a blue sky.
Due to the scattering of blue light in different directions, the sky appears blue.

2. Dust particles and water droplets present in the atmosphere do not obey the
scattering law. Water droplets scatter all the colours of the spectrum equally. This
results in reconstituted white light and thus clouds appear white.

3. When the sun is low in the sky, its path through the atmosphere is longer and
yellow, orange and red are scattered near the ground. Thus the sun appears
red during the sun set.

4. A thin film of oil floating on water creates a pattern of shimmering spectral

colours.

5. The scattering of light is found to be inversely proportional to the fourth power of the
wavelength of light. Thus scattering of red light is very much than that of yellow light.
Therefore red light can be seen upto longer distances. Hence danger signals are red.

6. White coloured clothes reflects almost all the light incident on it while black clothes
absorb all the light rays incident on it which is converted into heat. This is why people
prefer black coloured dresses in winter to keep warm.

7. When sun light passes through the atmosphere, the fine particles in air scatter the blue
colour more than red. The scattered blue light enters our eyes. If the earth had no
atmosphere, there would not have been any scattering and the sky would have looked
dark. That is why the sky appears dark to passengers flying at very high altitudes or to
an astronaut.

Harmful effects of electromagnetic radiations:

1. Ultra-violet radiations can cause health hazards like skin cancer if our body is exposed to
them.
2. X-rays can penetrate through human flesh but are stopped by bones. X-rays can therefore
cause some harmful effects to human body.
3. Gamma radiations can easity penetrate through the human body and can cause immense
biological damage.
Electromagnetic Source Detected Wavelen Speed Effect on Penetrati Effect on Uses
wave by gth photographic ng power human
range plate body
Gamma rays Radioactive Rutherford < 10-3 3 X 10 8 ms-1 Affects . Very high Very Study of
nuclei, cosmic harmful. structure of
rays Can burn atomic nuclei
tissues.
3 X 10 8 ms-1 Medical
X – rays High energy Rontgen 1nm – Strongly affects High Harmful radiography,
10-3nm crystallography.
3 X 10 8 ms-1
Electric arc Ordinary i). Very small
Ultraviolet rays and sparks, Prof. 400 nm – Strongly affects glass amounts of UV
Sunlight J Ritter 1 nm 3 X 10 8 ms-1 absorbs Harmful rays helps
passes Synthesis of
through vitamin D.
Quartz. ii). For Sterilising
purposes

iii). Detecting the

purity of gems,
eggs, ghee, etc.

Visible light Sun, light Newton 700 nm – 3 X 10 8 ms-1 Affects Passes Not very Used in
from electric 400 nm through harmful in photography,
bulb, flame, glass limited photo-synthesis
white hot prism Quantity. and to see things
bodies around us.
i). Used in night
Infra-red rays Does not affect Absorbed Produces photography and
Sun, arc ordinary by glass heating also in mist and
lamp, fire, William 1 mm – photographic but pass effect on fog photography
red hot Hershell 700 nm plate but affects through the body as they can
bodies specially treated rock salt penetrate and
photographic not much
plate. scattered.
 ii). Used by
doctors for
therapeutic
purposes.
iii). Used in
signals during
war.
iv). Used in
remote controls
v). Infrared
lamps are used
in dark rooms for
developing
photographs as
they do not
affect the
photographic
film chemically,
but provide
some visibility.

Microwaves Oscillating Hertz 0.1 m – 3 X 10 8 ms-1 Passes Over i). Satellite

current in 1 mm through exposure communication
special glass, destruct ii). Analysis of
vacuum tube paper, the atomic &
[Klystron Plastic tissues molecular
tube] structure.
iii). For cooking
in microwave-
ovens and in
radar
communication.

Used in radar,
Radio waves TV and radio Marconi Above radio and
transmittors 10m 3 X 10 8 ms-1 --- television
communication.