Indigo™ triangular glass prisms for white light dispersion and retroreflection.
Use for science lab demonstrations experiments or unique custom imprinted promotional gift items.
BK7, a borosilicate crown glass, has a refractive index of 1.53-1.51 in the visible range of 400-700nm. It is useful for measuring angular dispersion according to Snell's law. It is also superior to acrylic for showing that near infrared light (NIR) can be separated to heat a thermometer. For optical systems requiring much greater dispersion, flint glass is the material of choice.
The angle between the two polished faces of a triangular prism is called the refracting angle or apex angle. For transmitted rays in dispersion prisms this angle is 60°. Right angle optical prisms, the critical angle is 90°.One prism face can be "silvered" & made into a mirror to reflect light 90° for laser laser beam steering. When the opposite face is also silvered, to enhance total internal reflection, light is retroreflected 180°.
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Check out this chandelier made with special 225mm (9") equilateral glass prisms. The variety of different incident light angles makes for a stunning entrance. Thanks to Fabray Lighting Design, Comstock Design, TableM, and AdLight for sharing this image & allowing us to show it.
In addition to prisms, a glass stirring rod can demonstrate how refractive index influences the path of a light ray as it moves from one medium, air, to another, water.
Triangular glass prisms are used as basic tools for teaching the physics of optics. Dispersing white light into the familiar rainbow of colours helps understand that the electromagnetic is composed of discrete wavelengths. Right angle prisms on the other hand are used to reflect light & can be found in binoculars, camera, periscopes & more.
Issac Newton separated sunlight into discrete color bands, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet using a triangular glass prism in 1665. Frederick Herschel later discovered infrared light, (longer wavelengths than visible red) in similar experiments & showed it could raise the temperature of a thermometer.