Answer to Question #2577 in Optics for hannah

Question

How does diffraction create dispersion?
if you could please provide with an example, like how this works in a prism.

Answer 1

Generally diffraction changes the direction of propagation of wave. As the angle of change depends on the wavelength, the different wavelengths go to different directions. Hence the dispersion.
In the case of prism when the white light comes through the prism it breacks into several rays due to the light spectr. This is difraction. So in the outcome we have that the waves of different wavelength(i.e. the rays of different color as in rainbow) go with the different angles of refraction.Hence we have dispersion