Light and Optics

Continuous Spectrum

What it shows:

White light is shown, á la Newton's demonstration of dispersion by a prism, to be composed of a continuous spectrum of colors.

How it works:

A large brilliant spectrum is produced by using a 1 kW carbon arc light source 1 with adjustable slit, a "fast" f/0.9 imaging lens, 2 and a highly dispersive in-line prism. 3 The spectrum easily fills a two meter wide screen with vibrant colors. An alternative (more compact) setup consists of a Beseler slide projector 4 which...

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