Spectrum facts for kids
This article is about the visible light spectrum. For other meanings, see: Spectrum (disambiguation)
A spectrum (plural: spectra) is a beautiful band of colors. Think of a rainbow! It shows colors like violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. You can see a spectrum when sunlight shines through a special glass shape called a prism. The light then spreads out onto a white screen. This colorful band is called the visible spectrum. It is just a small part of something much bigger, called the electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists who study spectra are involved in a field called Spectroscopy.
What is the Visible Spectrum?
The visible spectrum is the part of light that our eyes can see. It includes all the colors of the rainbow. These colors always appear in the same order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. A natural example of a spectrum is a rainbow in the sky. Rainbows happen when sunlight passes through tiny water droplets in the air, which act like many small prisms.
How Light Creates a Spectrum
When white light, like sunlight, passes through a prism, it separates into its different colors. This happens because light bends, or "refracts," when it moves from one material (like air) into another (like glass).
Why Colors Separate
Different colors of light have different wavelengths. Think of a wavelength as the length of a wave.
- Red light has the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum.
- Violet light has the shortest wavelength.
When light enters a prism, the shorter wavelengths (like violet) bend more than the longer wavelengths (like red). This causes the white light to spread out into its individual colors. Red light bends the least, so it appears closest to the original path of the light. Violet light bends the most, so it spreads out the furthest. This is why you see all the colors neatly lined up in a spectrum.
See also
In Spanish: Espectro para niños
