When a white light is incident on the first surface of the prism it gets refracted. But each constituent of the white light gets refracted through a different angle, i.e., white light gets dispersed. When these colours are incident on the second surface of the prism they again undergo refraction (they get refracted from a denser to rarer medium) and the colours are separated further. Thus a beam of white light incident on a prism splits into its constituent colours to form a spectrum. Each constituent of the white light is deviated towards the base of the prism. Violet colour suffers the maximum deviation and red the least. The spectrum obtained is impure as the colours in the spectrum do not have any sharp boundaries i.e., each colour merges gradually into the next.
taken from: http://www.tutorvista.com/content/science/science-ii/human-eye-colourful-world/dispersion-white-light-prism.php
this video gives a simple explaination about light dispersion.
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