Did you know that compact disks can be used to listen to music? The surface of the compact disk or CD acts like a prism. In this science animation Nakira will answer these questions: What is a prism? And how does a prism make a rainbow? Light has different levels of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum. This part of the electromagnetic spectrum we can see with our human eyes. Energy travels through the air in long and short patterns called waves. The energy we can see looks like different colors because of the lengths of the waves. The longer and slower waves means that the light will look red and oranges. The faster and shorter waves show up as yellows and greens. The shortest waves we can see are blue and purple. Prisms are objects that can spread light apart to show those colors.