2006-08-09 05:01:28 · 13 answers · asked by BlahDeBlah 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Only through different medium (like a glass prism can split sunlight because different colors travel at different speeds).
But in space, they all travel with the same speed, just different frequency (so they wiggle up and down faster or slower while travelling forward at the same speed).
2006-08-09 05:04:41 · answer #1 · answered by ymingy@sbcglobal.net 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
In vacuum, the speed of light is constant. This applies to all wavelengths, so all colors travel at the same speed in a vacuum.
However, if different colors travel through any other medium, only their frequency remains the same for each color. The speeds and wavelengths will differ among the different wavelengths. This explains why white light when passing throug a prism, separates into different colors.
2006-08-09 06:53:31 · answer #2 · answered by dennis_d_wurm 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The wave equation:
velocity = frequency x wavelength
As the colour of the light changes, which is measured as its wavelength, then so does the frequency.
As wavelength decreases (red to blue - ROYGBIV), the frequency increases. The product, frequency x wavelength, is always a constant because the wave speed is the same for all members of the electromagnetic spectrum (which includes light) in the same material.
The speed of light in vacuum is 3.0 x 10^8 m/s
2006-08-09 05:16:58 · answer #3 · answered by hippoterry2005 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.
All light waves (including heat, radio waves, x-rays, etc) travel at the same speed. However, when they pass thru different materials, such a glass, the wave changes VELOCITY. Since velocity is always a combination of SPEED and DIRECTION, and the speed of light is the same regardless of color (frequency), the only thing that can change is the direction. This makes the light wave appear to bend, and is called refraction.
- The higher the frequency of a wave, the more energy it has. The more energy it has, the less it will bend. a beam of white light is just a bunch of waves with different frequencies traveling in the same direction. When white light plasses thru a prism, the lower frequency waves (red) bend the most, while the higher frequency waves (blue-violet) bend the least. This makes the white light appear to spread out into the rainbow spectrum. All the different colors are leaving the prism at the SAME SPEED, but now they are traveling in DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS.
2006-08-09 10:28:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
All light travels at the same speed until it encounters some sort of medium. Then because of the differences in the wavelengths, the spectrum gets broken up as it exits the medium
2006-08-09 05:11:17 · answer #5 · answered by Daisuke 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a vacuum, yes. All electromagnetic radiation travels at a hair under 300,000,000 m/s.
But in most other materials (air, water, glass, etc) the velocity varies with the wavelength (and it's *always* slower than the velocity in a vacuum)
The amount by which it is slowed is related to the 'index of refraction' of the material. For most materials, the index of refraction is not a constant, but varies with wavelength.
The amount by which the index of refraction changes with wavelength is called 'dispersion' and it's the reason a prism can 'break up' white light into its component colors and why cheap optics on cheap cameras suffer from what's called 'chromatic abberation' (those 'outlines' of red or blue around objects)
Doug
2006-08-09 05:26:14 · answer #6 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Every colour has got a specific wavelength and depending on there wavelength their respective speed also varies. Lower the wavelength higher is the speed
2006-08-09 05:09:14 · answer #7 · answered by vicky 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No they dont. All light is initially white light. so primarilly, they all travel at the same speed...the speed of light.
Light can be different colours because of the objects absorbing or reflecting the light. Objects absorb the colour in the white light that they are, so we see only that colour. all the other colours in the white light (white light is, by the way, made up of the primary colours in light, different to in art, and is not a single colour) are reflected, enabling us to see the object.
xx xx rosie xx xx
2006-08-09 05:16:00 · answer #8 · answered by rosie_obrien123 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The all travel at the speed of light.
2006-08-09 05:05:21 · answer #9 · answered by gtoughuk 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only when split through a prism, that's how a spectrum (rainbow)is created because the light has been slowed down so much that they can be visible in their true colours, white light (normal light) is made of the seven colours of the spectrum (rainbow) black is when all the colours are absorbed.
2006-08-09 09:22:33 · answer #10 · answered by Gareth 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋