Refraction through a prism A prism isa solid with five faces, three rectangular and two triangular, as shown in the figure. Sa Figure 9.47 A prism If we cut the prism parallel to the triangular face and perpendicular to its length, the cross section obtained is known as principal cross-section as shown in the adjoining figure. In the given (fig 9.48) ‘PQ’ is the incident ray, ‘QR’ is the 7 A dS * | refracted ray and‘RS' is the emergent ray. Ki G | 4i, and Zr, are the angles of incidence and refraction, 9 respectively, for refraction on the face AB, r,’is the angle of | incidence when light falls on the face AC, and ‘i,’ is the angle of emergence. F'and'FG’ are the normals on‘AB'and‘AC’ at points‘Q’and 8 c ‘Respectively’ AB’and“AC' are known as the refracting fices of ||/ > the prismand hence the angle between these two refracting faces Figure 9.48 (A) is known as the ‘angle of the prism’,The face‘BC’ of the Prism is known as its base. In the absence of the prism, the incident light ray would have travelled alone th “pon a along the path‘PQT” i sfracts at the two faces of the prism and emerges along"TRS',Thus the light : 1'sut due to the prism ite and the amount of deviation is measured by the angle*X'T" u is deviated from its original path and is known as the angle of deviation (0) As ‘AQFR’ is a quadrilateral, ZA + ZAQF + Zz + ZARF = 360° But ZAQF = ZARF = 90° ZA + Ze + 180 = 360° => ZA + Lo= 180° O) ‘Scanned wih CamScannerQFRE 1s a rangle pe 433 nea a3) som expations (1) and (2) At+éz ‘ 1, + Zz > ZA r+ r rte () handy ty = aiti-(,+r)=d A= d (trom eq 3) =A+d - () As the angle of incidence is gradually increased, the angle of deviation decreases to a certain value and on further increasing the incident angle, the angle of deviation increases. If a graph is plotted between angle of incidence (i) taken along X-axis and angle of deviation (@) taken along Y-axis, the nature of the figure. raph is a parabola, as shown in the given This indicates that for a given value of angle cieaeey wwe can have two angles of incidence ‘i and ',’ out of whic - —_ if one (i) is the incident angle, the other (i) is the emergent Figure 9.49 ''Vs'd' graph angle. isi ene inedeme anges ave ge‘ as he emergent ang an the deviation va remains sane Ata i,’ is the incident angle, in . articul ation angle (shown as D in the given figure), both the angles of incidence and Partculay minimum oa Se ree and in that situation, the effacted ray °QR will be parallel emergence will be equal i-e..i, = 274% to the base ‘BC’ of the prism. Then we have r, = 1, of the prism, we have i, i (say) and So, in the minimum deviation position :duce to 7 + Gay), then the equations (3) and (4) reduc A "TSA = 2r=Aorr= > ma Mitiza+ Da 2isAt Dein ‘Scanned wih CamScannerFrom Snell’s law we have, A+D _ sin| sini 2 sint A sin| = 2 This is the expression for refractive index of the material of prism and is applicable to the siuat where the ‘angle of deviation’ of the prism is minimum. ‘Scanned wih CamScanner