Dispersion is the divergence or spreading of the different colored rays of a beam of composite light when refracted by a prism or lens, or when diffracted, so as to produce a spectrum. The power of a transparent medium to separate
the spectrum colors the figures being usually the result of the subtraction of the figures of refractivre index.
Dispersion is the difference between the amoutn of refraction of different colors of light. White light is actually composed of light of all different colors. A highly dispersive material will split light strongly into its component colors to give a "prism" effect showing a "rainbow" or spectrum. Dispersion is often known as "fire".
