CERTIFICATE

This is It is hereby to certify that, the original

and genuine investigation work has been
carried out to investigate about the subject
matter and the related data collection and
investigation has been completed solely,
sincerely and satisfactorily done by,
Anshul K. Bharti a student of class 12-A
under the Roll no.-09 for the academic
session 2016-2017,
Regarding the investigatory project entitled
Dependence of incident angle on incident
angle using a hollow prism.
For Physics Department under direct
supervision of the undersigned as per the
requirement for the Board Examination.

Internal Examiner
Examiner

Principal

External

__________________

______________
_________________
Date
____________

Acknowled
gement
The successful completion of any
task would be incomplete without
mentioning the names of those
persons who helped to make it
possible. I take this opportunity to
express my gratitude in few words
and respect to all those who
helped me in the completion of
this project. It is my humble
pleasure to acknowledge my deep
senses of gratitude to my Physics
teacher, Mr Shailesh Litoria for her
valuable support, constant help
and guidance at each and every

stage, without which this project

would not have come forth. I also
register my sense of gratitude to
our principal, Mrs Vaishali Mishra,
for her immense encouragement
that has made this project
successful. I would also like to
thank my friends and family for
encouraging me during the course
of this project. Last, but not the
least, I would like to thank CBSE
for giving us the opportunity to
undertake this project.

INTRODUCTION
In optics, a prism is a transparent optical
element with flat, polished surfaces that refract
light. The exact angles between the surfaces
depend on the application. The traditional
geometrical shape is that of triangular prism

with a triangular base and rectangular sides,

and in colloquial use "prism" usually refers to
this type. Some types of optical prism are not
in fact in the shape of prisms. Prisms can be
made from any material that is transparent to
the coming wavelengths for which they are
designed
Typical
materials
include glass, plastic and fluorite. A prism can
be used to break light up into its
constituent spectral colours (the colours of the
rainbow).
Prisms
can
also
be
used
to reflect light, or to split light into components
with different polarizations.
PRISM AND NATURE OF LIGHT:
Before Isaac Newton, it was believed that white
light was colourless, and that the prism
itself produced the color. Newton's experiments
demonstrated that all the colours already
existed in the light in a heterogeneous fashion,
and that "corpuscles" (particles) of light were
fanned out because particles with different
colours travelled with different speeds through
the prism. It was only later that Young and
Fresnel combined Newton's particle theory with
Huygens' wave theory to show that color is the
visible manifestation of light's
wavelength. Newton arrived at his conclusion
by passing the red color from one prism

through a second prism and found the color

unchanged. From this, he concluded that the
colours must already be present in the
incoming light thus; the prism did not create
colours, but merely separated colours that are
already there. He also used a lens and a
second prism to recompose the spectrum back
into white light. This experiment has become a
classic example of the methodology introduced
during the revolution. The results of this
experiment dramatically transformed the field
of metaphysics, leading to John
Locke's primary secondary quality
distinction. Newton discussed prism dispersion
in great detail in his book Opticks. He also
introduced the use of more than one prism to
control dispersion. Newton's description of his
experiments on prism dispersion was
qualitative, and is quite readable. A
quantitative was introduced in the 1980s.

Types of
prisms
Dispersive prisms
Dispersive prisms are used to break up light into its
constituent spectral colours because the refractive
index depends on frequency; the white light entering
the prism is a mixture of different frequencies, each
of which gets bent slightly differently. Blue light is
slowed down more than red light and will therefore
be bent more than red light.ex.Triangular prism
Reflective prisms
Reflective prisms are used to reflect light, in order to
flip, invert, rotate, deviate or displace the light
beam. They are typically used to erect the image
in binoculars or single-lens reflex cameras without
the prisms the image would be upside down for the
user. Many reflective prisms use total internal
reflection to achieve high reflectivity.
Polarizing prisms
There are also polarizing prisms which can split a
beam of light into components of

varying polarization. These are typically made of

a birefringent crystalline material. Ex. Nicole prism
Deflecting prisms
Wedge prisms are used to deflect a beam of light by
a fixed angle. A pair of such prisms can be used
for beam steering; by rotating the prisms the beam
can be deflected into any desired angle within a
conical field of regard.

HOW DOES A PRISM

WORK
Light changes speed as it moves from one medium
to another (for example, from air into the glass of
the prism). This speed change causes the light to
be refracted and to enter the new medium at a
different angle(Huygens principle). The degree of
bending of the light's path depends on the angle
that the incident beam of light makes with the
surface, and on the ratio between the refractive
indices of the two media(Snell's law). The refractive
index of many materials (such as glass) varies with
the wavelength or color of the light used, a
phenomenon known as Dispersion
This causes light of different colours to be refracted
differently and to leave the prism at different angles,
creating an effect similar to a rainbow. This can be
used to separate a beam of white light into its
constituent spectrum of
colours.
Prisms
will

generally disperse light over a much larger

frequency bandwidth than gratings, making them
useful
for
broad-spectrum spectroscopy.
Furthermore,
prisms
do
not
suffer
from
complications arising from overlapping spectral
orders, which all gratings have. Prisms are
sometimes used for the internal reflection at the
surfaces rather than for dispersion. If light inside the
prism hits one of the surfaces at a sufficiently steep
angle, total internal occurs and all of the light is
reflected. This makes a prism a useful substitute for
a mirror in some situations.