A quality 60 degree acrylic prism allows you to learn to split a beam of light into a multicolored rainbow or look through the top beveled edge to reflect images into wonderful kaleidoscopic patterns. Instructions are included.
Since the first moment that a rainbow appeared in the sky people have been fascinated with prismatic effects. Sir Issac Newton probably made the first prism discoveries while in college attempting to solve the problems of early telescope lens making.
Light travels more slowly through the prism than through air. When a beam of light enters the prism at an angle, this slowing of the light bends (refracts) the light. How much it bends depends on the wavelength of the light. Since white light is made up of all the colors, each with a different wavelength, the colors are dispersed into a rainbow; with the longest wavelength, red, bent the least and the shortest wavelength, indigo, is bent the most.
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