/sci/ - Science & Math

I don't understand refraction

so if I have a glass cube (top) and shine a white light through it, most of the light is not absorbed and passes straight through, but some small amount is and gets re-emitted in all directions by the absorbing atom, and then again that emitted light has a super small chance of getting absorbed. the end result is the magnitude is of light leaving in other directions is so tiny that light effectively only passes straight through the cube. okay

but when I swap my cube for a prism, the light suddenly splits upon exiting for some reason? It's still just as transparent so shouldn't most of the light be coming straight out the other side? where are all these colors coming out anyways, if most of the light is not getting absorbed, then then the atom can't emit in a different frequency or anything like that