Why does white light entering a prism leave a rainbow?
When light hits the prism at an angle θ₀, the exiting angle is given by sinθ = sinθ₀ /𝑛
Different colors have different 𝑛 (in glass)
So each color will exit the prism with a slightly different angle θpic.twitter.com/yIsrbkk76p
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But it doesn’t really make sense to discuss a single bare photon in a material. It reduces system to a vacuum. And, diamond (~2.4) and ash (~1.1) are both just carbon but have greatly different n’s. The index of refraction depends equally on the geometry as it does atom type.
Boundary conditions require wave to be continuous at boundary, and since wave velocity changes upon entering medium, wavelength must change? Well, I would use the term "fundamental" in terms of "building blocks"
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Isn’t it excitations in fields (waves) which give rise to particles?
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Heuristically yes, but those are fundamental fields permeating all spacetime, not macroscopic wave that arise from a coherence effect
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