• Question: How was spectroscopy discovered?

    Asked by Jess to Baljit, Jesus, Michael on 19 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Jesus Calvo-Castro

      Jesus Calvo-Castro answered on 19 Nov 2015:


      Hi @468sped27. Probably we can track back the first work on spectroscopy to Sir Isaac Newton! When he realised that by using optical materials such as prisms he could generate different colours from the white radiation of the sun (same effect you can observe easily when it’s raining and it’s sunny and you see the rainbow in the sky)

    • Photo: Baljit Ghatora

      Baljit Ghatora answered on 19 Nov 2015:


      @468sped27-yes many people think that it was Isaac Newton who first discovered spectroscopy…I did history as a GCSE and am very keen in history still now- the Romans (Robert Boyle) Were actually the first people who discovered the spectrum of colour from a prism…it was Newton who then developed the theory further and said that it was white light split up into colours..

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