Leaving Certificate Physics Practice Test

Dispersion is the separation of light into its different colours or wavelengths.

Dispersion Electric field Coulomb's Law Potential difference

Correct Answer:

Dispersion

Explanation:

Dispersion describes why white light splits into a spectrum when it passes through a material like a prism. Different colours have different wavelengths, so they travel at different speeds inside the medium (v = c/n(λ)) and bend by different amounts. Because the refractive index depends on wavelength, each colour emerges at its own angle, spreading the light into a range of colours. That separation into colours is what dispersion is all about. The other terms relate to electric fields or potentials between charges and don’t describe this splitting of light by wavelength, so they don’t fit the idea of dispersion.

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