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violet or the blue side of rays refract more

Refraction is the change in direction of a light beam commonly caused as it passes from one medium to another. Snell's law relates the angle of incidence and angle of refraction by n1 * sin(theta1) = n2 * sin(theta2).

The reason different wavelengths of light refract at different angles in a medium (such as water or glass) is because the index of refraction (n2) varies by wavelength, this variation with wavelength is known as dispersion.

In most materials that you would observe refraction, the index of refraction decreases with wavelength. This is called normal dispersion. (If the index of refraction increases with wavelength, it's called anamolous dispersion.)

Thus, in glass (prisms) or water (rainbows), which exhibit normal dispersion, the index of refraction is greater for shorter wavelengths. Violet light, which is the shortest wavelength of visible light, will refract the most.

by the way- this is not my thought, I got this from yahoo! UK and Ireland' from a guy named askbrian

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