45 degrees and 60 degrees prisms on support — Teylers Museum

45 degrees and 60 degrees prisms on support

1850 - 1874

A prism is a triangular, transparent piece of material, usually glass. Prisms are used in physics for their optical properties. These five prisms consist of two isosceles triangles and three equilateral triangles. In a rectangular piece of glass the refracted light beam is parallel to the incident light beam. So the light travels straight on. In a prism, there is a change of direction. This is because the shape of the prism ensures that a light beam is refracted twice. The incident beam is refracted towards the perpendicular and the refracted beam away from the perpendicular. The magnitude of the deviation depends on the refracting angle of the prism and of the incident angle of the light beam. When a narrow light beam falls on a prism, a band of colours will appear behind the prism. In this way Isaac Newton discovered that white light is composed of several colours. This set of colours is called the colour spectrum.

Administration name

Fysisch Kabinet

Title

45 degrees and 60 degrees prisms on support

Translated title

45 degrees and 60 degrees prisms on support

Dating

[{'start': '1850', 'end_precision': u'', 'end': '1874', 'start_precision': u''}]

Reproduction reference

[{'reference': '..\\images\\Fysisch\\Gekoppelde afbeeldingen\\FK 0334.jpg'}]