HUMAN EYE & THE COLORFUL WORLD

Glass Prism:

The triangular glass prism is a transparent object made of glass having two
triangular ends and three rectangular sides (or rectangular faces).

Note:
The opposite faces of a triangular glass prism are not parallel to one another.
They are inclined at an angle to one another. The angle between its opposite
faces is called the angle of the prism.

Refraction Of Light Through A Glass

Prism :
1. There are two refractions occurs, one is at
the air glass interface and another one is at the
glass air interface. The surfaces which refracts
the light is called refracted faces. ( Rectangular
faces).

2. The second refracted ray is known as

emergent ray.

Emergent ray: The ray which comes out of the refracted medium (glass prism) is called emergent ray.

Angle of emergence: Angle between the emergent ray and normal is called angle of emergence (e)

3. The emergent ray is not parallel to the incident ray. Reason: The opposite faces of the glass prism
(where refraction takes place) are not parallel to one another.

5. The emergent ray is deviated from its originally path. Reason: The opposite faces of the glass prism
(where refraction takes place) are inclined at an angle to one another. The angle between the
refracted surfaces of prism is called Angle of prism (A).

6. Angle of deviation (δ) : The angle between incident ray and emergent ray is called angle of
deviation. Angle of deviation depends on angle of the prism. i.e., A  δ

NOTE:
1. When a ray of light passes through a prism, it bends towards the base of prism. In other
words, when a ray of light passes through a prism, it bends towards the thicker part of the prism.

2. Angle of incidence is not equal to angle of emergence (i  e)

DISPERSION OF LIGHT:
1. White light is a mixture of seven colours (Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Green,Red)

2. When white light passes through a glass prism it split into its seven constituent colors . These
splitting up of white light into seven colours on passing through a transparent medium like a
glass prism is called dispersion of light.
3. The band of seven colours formed on a white screen, when a beam of white light is passed through a
glass prism, is called spectrum of white light.

4. Why Dispersion Occurs?

 Different colors having different wavelength.

i.e (Violet - shorter wavelength; Red – Longer wavelength)
 Since Speed of light depends on wavelength (Wavelength  Speed), Different colors
travels at different speed.
 The dispersion of white light occurs because colours of white light travel at
different speeds through the glass prism.
 The amount of refraction (or bending) depends on the speed of coloured light in glass.
(i.e Refractive index  1/speed) they are refracted (or bent)by different angles on
passing through the glass prism (some colours are bent less whereas others are bent
more).
 when white light consisting of seven colours falls on a glass prism, each colour in
it is refracted (or deviated) by a different angle, with the result that seven colours
are spread out to form a spectrum.
 NOTE: The red colour is deviated the least. The violet colour is deviated the maximum.

5. Re-Combination of Spectrum Colours to Give White Light:

The seven coloured lights of the spectrum can be recombined to give back white light. This can be
done as follows.
The second prism should be placed in reverse poistion.

The recombination of seven colours takes place due to which the refraction produced by the second
prism is equal and opposite to that produced by the first prism. i.e., The amount of bending is equal
and opposite.

NOTE: Both the prisms should have same angle of prim.

THE RAINBOW:

1. The rainbow is an arch of seven colours visible in the sky which is produced by the dispersion of
sun’s light by raindrops in the atmosphere

2. The rainbow is actually a natural spectrum of sunlight in the sky.

3. The rainbow is formed in the sky when the sun is shining and it is raining at the same time.

4. A rainbow is always formed in a direction opposite to that of the sun. We can see the rainbow if we
stand with our back towards the sun and rain in front of us.

5. Explanation: A rainbow is produced by the dispersion of white sunlight by raindrops (or water
drops) in the atmosphere. Each raindrop acts as a tiny glass prism splitting the sunlight into a
spectrum.

6. The red colour of spectrum appears at the top

of the rainbow whereas violet colour appears at
its bottom.

NOTE:

We can also see a rainbow on a sunny day if we

look through a spray of water from a fountain (or
through a waterfall) with the sun behind us.