A prism causes dispersion of white light while a rectangular glass block does not. Explain

  1. In a prism the refraction of light at the two plane surfaces.
  2. The dispersion of white light occurs at the first surface of prism where its constituent colours are deviated through different angles.
  3. At the second surface, these split colours suffer only refraction and they get further separated.
  4. But in a rectangular glass block, the refraction of light takes place at the two parallel surfaces.
  5. At the first surface, although the white light splits into its constituent colours on refractions, but they split colours on suffering refraction at the second surĀ¬face emerge out in the form of a parallel beam, which give an impression of white light.