White is the presence of all colors. This differs from paint, because paint is pigment. Pigments are that which absorb color; I.E. not themselves colors. What a pigment does not absorb is reflected and generally perceived.
White is a number of combinations of wavelengths. These combinations are indistinguishable from one another. A pigment absorbing enough wavelengths moves the perception away from white and toward black.
Therefore, black and not white is the absence of color and the presence of all pigment. White and not black is the absence of pigment and the presence of all colors.
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SCIENCE!
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This person gets it. How do prisms work?
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I'm not entirely sure of the mechanism of prisms, but here's my educated guess. Light goes in one side/edge/whatever it happens to be, and different wavelengths bend differently inside the glass such that, when they exit the glass, they are split in ascending/descending order of wavelength. Again, I don't really know, but I have yet to encounter a circumstance where this interpretation failed.
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That's my understanding too. Different mediums(liquids, gasses, solids. and there different compositions) cause wavelengths to bend differently too. The reason the sky is blue, and polluted skies will have more "spectacular" sunsets.