Event Website
http://www.bates.edu/mt-david-summit.xml
Start Date
1-4-2011 1:45 PM
End Date
1-4-2011 3:00 PM
Description
When a beam of light hits the interface between two mediums, two things can happen. It will either be reflected, like a common bathroom mirror, or refracted, such as with a prism. This depends on both the indices of refraction, properties intrinsic of the two mediums, and the angle at which the beam hits the interface. Prisms are specially designed polygons that take advantage of refraction, and sometimes reflection as well, to achieve a specific alteration of the original beam or image, for use in optical systems as complex as the telescopes that let us view the edges of the universe, or as simple as those that just to create a rainbow on the wall.
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Rainbows and Refraction: The Physics and Geometry of Prisms
When a beam of light hits the interface between two mediums, two things can happen. It will either be reflected, like a common bathroom mirror, or refracted, such as with a prism. This depends on both the indices of refraction, properties intrinsic of the two mediums, and the angle at which the beam hits the interface. Prisms are specially designed polygons that take advantage of refraction, and sometimes reflection as well, to achieve a specific alteration of the original beam or image, for use in optical systems as complex as the telescopes that let us view the edges of the universe, or as simple as those that just to create a rainbow on the wall.
http://scarab.bates.edu/mt_david_summit/MDS2011/02Poster/26