prism : Idioms & Phrases

. See Prism.
(Opt.), a prism composed usually of two prisms of different transparent substances which have unequal dispersive powers, as two different kinds of glass, especially flint glass and crown glass, the difference of dispersive power being compensated by giving them different refracting angles, so that, when placed together so as to have opposite relative positions, a ray of light passed through them is refracted or bent into a new position, but is free from color.

. So called from Wm. Nicol, of Edinburgh, who first proposed it. (Opt.) An instrument for experiments in polarization, consisting of a rhomb of Iceland spar, which has been bisected obliquely at a certain angle, and the two parts again joined with transparent cement, so that the ordinary image produced by double refraction is thrown out of the field by total reflection from the internal cemented surface, and the extraordinary, or polarized, image alone is transmitted.

noun optical device having a triangular shape and made of glass or quartz; used to deviate a beam or invert an image
prism.

(Opt.), the angle of a triangular prism included between the two sides through which the refracted beam passes in the decomposition of light.

(Geom.), a cone, cylinder, prism, or pyramid, the axis of which is perpendicular to the base.

noun optical device that produces plane-polarized ultraviolet light
Rochon prism.

noun optical device that produces plane-polarized ultraviolet light
Rochon prism.