Prism

Hello. I am a prism. I look like a shiny, clear piece of glass. You can hold me in your hand. But I have a magical secret inside me. It is a sparkly, colorful secret. When a sunbeam shines on me, I can do something very special. I love to play with the sunshine and show everyone a beautiful surprise.

Once, a long, long time ago, around the year 1666, I met a special friend. His name was Isaac. Isaac took me into a very dark room. He let just one little sunbeam peek inside. The sunbeam came and tickled me. I felt so warm. Then, whoosh. I showed Isaac my secret. I turned the plain white sunbeam into a beautiful rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple colors splashed all over the wall. Isaac was so happy. He learned that sunshine is made of all the colors of the rainbow, all hiding together.

Learning about colors helped people in big ways. Now, my prism cousins are busy helping people. They live inside binoculars to help you see things that are far, far away. They help cameras take pretty pictures. But my favorite job is still making happy rainbows. When you see a little rainbow dancing on your wall on a sunny day, that might be one of my friends saying hello. I love sharing my sparkly colors with the world.