What causes a spectrum of color to form?

Answer 1

that is the definition of colour or how you perceive colour.

Answer 2

Dispersion of light.

add. Whilst all colours travel at the same speed in a vacuum, in a solid material, they travel at different velocities, and it is this that underlies refraction and the consequent dispersion.

Answer 3

The radio spectrum (including light) is composed of a large range of frequencies. Our eyes have developed a way over millions of years to sense a small range of these frequencies, and send them to the brain for processing.

This small range of frequencies was long ago named, "Light". The eye/brain interprets every tiny part of light as a different color - millions of them. That's why you see rich color all around you, unless you are color blind. Little tiny particles of light have been named, "Photons".

Well, we can't really name 64 million colors, so the colors have been broken down in 'principal', or main colors. These we have named: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo, and these are primarily the colors we are aware of when a prism splits light into its various colors. There are, of course, many other parts of light that have names: Purple, Violet, Aqua, Magenta, and so forth.

If light did not behave like this, along with an eye and brain to make sense of it, then you would not have a red shirt, brown shoes, aqua colored oceans, grass green, sky blue, or even grey.

Answer 4

Rainbows have color because sunlight shines through rain drops, therefore making color. You can make a rainbow by taking a prism and putting it in the sun.

Answer 5

White light is a mixture of different color; a prism or similar device that produces a spectrum simply separates these colors.