Kaplan Nursing Entrance Practice Exam

White light is made up of which of the following?

1. Infrared rays

2. Ultraviolet rays

3. The colors of the visible spectrum

4. X-rays

The correct answer is: The colors of the visible spectrum

White light is a mixture of all the colors in the visible spectrum. When sunlight or white light is passed through a prism, it is dispersed into its constituent colors, which include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. This phenomenon demonstrates that white light is not a single wavelength but rather a combination of multiple wavelengths that correspond to different colors. Infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, and X-rays each represent forms of electromagnetic radiation, but they exist outside the visible spectrum. Infrared rays are longer in wavelength than visible light, while ultraviolet rays have shorter wavelengths. X-rays also have much shorter wavelengths than visible light, and therefore they do not contribute to the composition of white light. Understanding that white light encompasses the full range of colors in the visible spectrum is foundational in the study of optics and color perception.