Blue light is bent more by a glass prism than red light. Does blue light or red

Question

Blue light is bent more by a glass prism than red light. Does blue light or red light have a larger index of refraction in glass? Which color has a larger wavelength, red or blue? Which color travels more rapidly in the prism? The most famous example of dispersion is provided by rainbow, which is caused by the dispersion of light in droplets of rain. Suppose you want to make a rainbow on a sunny day by spraying water from a garden hose into the air. Where must you stand relative to the water and the sun to see the rainbow ?

Explanation / Answer

In glass, the bending is proportional to the index of refraction. Blue bends more than red, hence blue has more refraction index in glass than red.

Red has a larger wevelength than red.

We have, n=c/v, where v is the velocity in the medium (here glass).

This ratio is more for blue (since its index of refraction n is more) than red, so the denominator must be less. Hence velocity of blue iss less than that of red. That is, red travels more rapidly in the prism.

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