来自《耶鲁大学开放课程：新生有机化学 第1集 第1集》

• 
  
  Why is he holding a prism?
  为什么他拿着棱镜
• 
  
  Because that was his crucial experiment;
  因为这是他的关键实验
• 
  
  and here's his diagram in that experiment with a prism in it.
  这是他在实验中使用棱镜的图
• 
  
  He called it the Experimentum Crucis, taking the word from Bacon.
  他称之为决断实验 引用了培根的词汇
• 
  
  Okay, so light came in through a hole in the window, through a lens,
  光线从窗口的洞射入 穿透镜片
• 
  
  and then got bent and dispersed into the different colors.
  然后被弯曲并分散成不同的颜色
• 
  
  So you get a spectrum here on this thing,
  通过棱镜你得到了光谱
• 
  
  the different colors.
  就是这些不同的颜色
• 
  
  Now there's the question, how does the prism make color?
  现在问题来了 棱镜如何造就这些颜色
• 
  
  Hooke and Descartes thought that light was a train of pulses
  虎克和笛卡尔认为 光是一连串脉冲
• 
  
  and as it goes through something like a prism,
  当它穿过像棱镜之类的物体
• 
  
  or as it reflects from a thin layer of oil on water or something like that,
  或被薄薄的水或油层之类的物体反射时