Certain properties of objects or physical processes, such as the
frequency of light or sound, the masses of the component parts
of a molecule, or even the ideals of a political party, may have
a wide variety of values. The distribution of these values,
arranged in increasing or decreasing order, is the spectrum of
that property. For example, sunlight is made up of many
different colors of light, the full spectrum of which are
revealed when sunlight is dispersed, as it is in a rainbow.
Similarly, the distribution of sounds over a range of
frequencies, such as a musical scale, is a sound spectrum. The
masses of fragments from an ionized molecule, separated
according to their mass-to-charge ratio, constitute a mass
spectrum. Opposing political parties are often said to be on
opposite ends of the (political) spectrum. The term spectrum is
also used to describe the graphical illustration of a spectrum
of values. The plural of spectrum is spectra. The spectrum of
light The spectrum of colors contained in sunlight w