Figure 2-3 Newton’s Experiment on the Nature of Light In a crucial experiment, Newton took sunlight that had passed through a prism and sent it through a second prism. Between the two prisms was a screen with a hole in it that allowed only one color of the spectrum to pass through. This same color emerged from the second prism. Newton’s experiment proved that prisms do not add color to light but merely bend different colors through different angles. It also proved that white light, such as sunlight, is actually a combination of all the colors that appear in its spectrum.