In optics, dispersion refers to the angular separation experienced by the component rays of a pencil of light on emerging from a refracting medium, whose surfaces are not parallel to each other, eg the common prism. The length of the spectrum and the relative space occupied by the coloured rays vary greatly according to the refracting medium, the spectrum from a prism of oil of cassia being two or three times longer than one formed by a glassprism.
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Dispersion
