物理学史上最美的十个实验第四名Newton'sdecompositionofsunlightwithaprism牛顿用棱镜分解太阳光IsaacNewtonwasborntheyearGalileodied.HegraduatedfromTrinityCollege,Cambridge,in1665,thenholedupathomeforacoupleofyearswaitingouttheplague.Hehadnotroublekeepinghimselfoccupied.Thecommonwisdomheldthatwhitelightisthepurestform(Aristotleagain)andthatcoloredlightmustthereforehavebeenalteredsomehow.Totestthishypothesis,Newtonshinedabeamofsunlightthroughaglassprismandshowedthatitdecomposedintoaspectrumcastonthewall.Peoplealreadyknewaboutrainbows,ofcourse,buttheywereconsideredtobelittlemorethanprettyaberrations.Actually,Newtonconcluded,itwasthesecolors—red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violetandthegradationsinbetween—thatwerefundamental.Whatseemedsimpleonthesurface,abeamofwhitelight,was,ifonelookeddeeper,beautifullycomplex.艾萨克·牛顿出生那年，伽利略与世长辞。牛顿1665年毕业于剑桥大学的三一学院，后来因躲避鼠疫在家里呆了两年，后来顺利地得到了工作。当时大家都认为白光是一种纯的没有其它颜色的光（亚里士多德就是这样认为的），而彩色光是一种不知何故发生变化的光。为了验证这个假设，牛顿把一面三棱镜放在阳光下，透过三棱镜，光在墙上被分解为不同颜色，后来我们称作为光谱。人们知道彩虹的五颜六色，但是他们认为那是因为不正常。牛顿的结论是：正是这些红、橙、黄、绿、青、蓝、紫基础色有不同的色谱才形成了表面上颜色单一的白色光，如果你深入地看看，会发现白光是非常美丽的。
