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Prism (optics) A familiar dispersive prism. An optical prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that are designed to refract light. At least one surface must be angled — elements with two parallel surfaces are not prisms. The most familiar type of optical prism is the triangular prism, which has a triangular base ...
A compact fluorescent lamp seen through an Amici prism. In optics and in wave propagation in general, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency; [ 1] sometimes the term chromatic dispersion is used for specificity to optics in particular. A medium having this common property may be termed a ...
Dispersive prism. In optics, a dispersive prism is an optical prism that is used to disperse light, that is, to separate light into its spectral components (the colors of the rainbow ). Different wavelengths (colors) of light will be deflected by the prism at different angles. [ 1] This is a result of the prism material's index of refraction ...
An example of spectroscopy: a prism analyses white light by dispersing it into its component colors. Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. [1] [2] In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
In physics, the term "light" may refer more broadly to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not. [ 4][ 5] In this sense, gamma rays, X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are also light. The primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarization.
Geometrical optics. Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances. The simplifying assumptions of geometrical optics include that light rays:
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. [ 1] Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation, and other forms of ...
The wavelength of light is then selected by the slit on the upper right corner. An optical spectrometer ( spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. [ 1]