![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg/320px-GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg)
*[Portrait of man in black with shoulder-length, wavy brown hair, a large sharp nose, and a distracted gaze](By After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Godfrey_Kneller" class="extiw" title="w:en:Godfrey Kneller">Godfrey Kneller</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/art/portrait.html">http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/art/portrait.html</a>, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37337">Link</a>)*

*[Sir Isaac Newton PRS FRS (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27[1]) was an English mathematician, astronomer, theologian, author and physicist (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made pathbreaking contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)* 

In 1672, Isaac Newton did a simple experiment, which we know well from school. It consists in the following. Shutting the shutters on all the windows of the room, he made a small hole so that sunlight would pass through it. On the way of light, a transparent prism was put, and behind the prism a screen was hung. On the screen, Newton observed colored bands of light. Sunlight, passing through the prism, separated several colored rays - from violet to red. This phenomenon was later called the dispersion of light.

![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Dispersive_Prism_Illustration.jpg/800px-Dispersive_Prism_Illustration.jpg)
*[Illustration of a dispersive prism separating white light into the colours of the spectrum, as discovered by Newton](By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg" title="File:Dispersive Prism Illustration by Spigget.jpg">Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg</a>: <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Spigget&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Spigget (page does not exist)">Spigget</a>derivative work: <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cepheiden" title="User:Cepheiden">Cepheiden</a> (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cepheiden" title="User talk:Cepheiden"><span class="signature-talk">talk</span></a>) - <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg" title="File:Dispersive Prism Illustration by Spigget.jpg">Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12098156">Link</a>)*

However, Sir Isaac was not the first to observe this phenomenon. Even at the beginning of our era it was known that large single crystals of natural origin have the property of decomposing light into colors. It is known that the first studies of the dispersion of light in experiments with a glass triangular prism, even before Newton, were performed by the [Englishman Hariot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harriot) and the[ Czech naturalist Marci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Marek_Marci).

*[In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency.[1] Media having this common property may be termed dispersive media. Sometimes the term chromatic dispersion is used for specificity. Although the term is used in the field of optics to describe light and other electromagnetic waves, dispersion in the same sense can apply to any sort of wave motion such as acoustic dispersion in the case of sound and seismic waves, in gravity waves (ocean waves), and for telecommunication signals along transmission lines (such as coaxial cable) or optical fiber.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersion_(optics))* 
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Light_dispersion_of_a_compact_fluorescent_lamp_seen_through_an_Amici_direct-vision_prism_PNr%C2%B00114.jpg/800px-Light_dispersion_of_a_compact_fluorescent_lamp_seen_through_an_Amici_direct-vision_prism_PNr%C2%B00114.jpg)
*[A compact fluorescent lamp seen through an Amici prism.](By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:D-Kuru" title="User:D-Kuru">D-Kuru</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/deed.en" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 at">CC BY-SA 3.0 at</a>, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7009695">Link</a>)*

*[Thomas Harriot (Oxford, c. 1560 – London, 2 July 1621), also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator who made advances within the scientific field. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to the British Isles.[1] Harriot was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope, on 26 July 1609, over four months before Galileo.[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harriot)* 
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/ThomasHarriot.jpg/320px-ThomasHarriot.jpg)
*[ThomasHarriot](By <span lang="en">Unknown</span> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/images/harriot.jpg">http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/images/harriot.jpg</a>, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3994065">Link</a>)*

*[Jan Marek Marci FRS, German: Johannes Marcus Marci de Cronland (June 13, 1595, Landskron[de] (Lanscron, Landeskrone, Cronland, Kronland, Czech: Lanškroun[cs]), Royal Bohemia, Bohemian Crownland, Austria–April 10, 1667, Prague, R.Bohemia, Bohemian Crownland, Austria), or Johannes (Greek: Ioannes) Marcus Marci, was a Bohemian doctor and scientist, rector of the University of Prague, and official physician to the Holy Roman Emperors.[1] The crater Marci on the far side of the Moon is named after him.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Marek_Marci)*
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Jan_Marcus_Marci_00.jpg/320px-Jan_Marcus_Marci_00.jpg)
*[Jan Marek Marci (1595—1667)](By Johann Balzer - 87 Abbildungen Böhmischer und Mährischer Gelehrten und Künstler, in Kupfer gestochen und verlegt von Johann Balzer, Prag 1772, S.23, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10815358">Link</a>)*
But before Newton, no such observations were subjected to serious analysis, and the conclusions drawn on their basis were not re-verified by additional experiments. Both Hariot and Marzi were followers of the great Aristotle. As you know, Aristotle argued that the difference in color is determined by the difference in the amount of darkness "blended" with white light. According to Aristotle's assertions, purple is the color when darkness is added to light, and red is at the smallest. Newton did additional experiments with cross prisms, when the light passed through one prism passes through another. On the basis of a set of experiments, he concluded that "no color arises from whiteness and blackness mixed together, except intermediate dark, the amount of light does not change the form of color." He showed that the "white" light should be considered as a composite of many colors. The main or more prominent are the colors from violet to red.
Different people at the same time did the same experiment, observed the same phenomena, but the conclusions were different. Perhaps it seems that the reason for the interpretation is seen and especially the thinking of the experimenters. I'm inclined to think that scientific knowledge is still a collective work. Therefore, certain conclusions need a certain period. Each new generation has the knowledge of the previous one, plus acquires new ones. Over time, the amount of information becomes critical and appears in the light as a logical conclusion. A scientist, for example Newton, is a worker who brings this knowledge to the species that is appropriate for all mankind.

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