The Human Eye and the Colourful World


   
 
Tracing the Path of Light Through a Prism
Let us now trace the path of light through a prism.
  • Place a prism on a white sheet of paper with the triangular face on the sheet and trace its boundary ABC.
  • Fix two pins T and S on one side.
  • Place the prism on the boundary ABC.
  • Looking through the other side fix two more pins Q and R in such a way that the all four pins appear to be in the same line.
  • Remove the pins and mark their positions.
  • Join TS and RQ and extend them to meet the faces of the prism at P and O respectively.
  • Join PO.
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  • TP represents the incident ray
  • PO represents the refracted ray
  • And OR represents the emergent ray which is bent towards the base.
  • Let PN and ON be the normal at the points P and O respectively.
  • And let i be the angle of incidence and r the angle of refraction.
  • If the incident ray TP is extended forward and the emergent ray RO backwards, they meet at M, forming the angle OML.
  • Measure the angle OML.
  • This angle is called the angle of deviation.
  • Angle of deviation is the angle through which an incident ray deviates.
  • Repeat this for different values of angle of incidence.
 
 
     
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