Chromatic Dispersion in a Prism

Refraction refers to the way that electromagnetic radiation (light) changes speed and direction as it travels across the interface between one transparent medium and another.

• As light travels from a fast medium such as air to a slow medium such as water it bends toward the normal and slows down.
• As light passes from a slow medium such as diamond to a faster medium such as glass it bends away from the normal and speeds up.
• In a diagram illustrating optical phenomena like refraction or reflection, the normal is a line drawn at right angles to the boundary between two media.
• A fast (optically rare) medium is one that obstructs light less than a slow medium.
• A slow (optically dense) medium is one that obstructs light more than a fast medium.
• The speed at which light travels through a given medium is expressed by its index of refraction.
• If we want to know in which direction light will bend at the boundary between transparent media we need to know:

• Which is the faster, less optically dense (rare) medium with a smaller refractive index?
• Which is the slower, more optically dense medium with the higher refractive index?

• The amount that refraction causes light to change direction, and its path to bend, is dealt with by Snell’s law.
• Snell’s law considers the relationship between the angle of incidence, the angle of refraction and the refractive indices (plural of index) of the media on both sides of the boundary. If three of the four variables are known, then Snell’s law can calculate the fourth.

The perception of colour by an observer results from properties of light that are visible to the human eye. The visual experience of colour is associated with terms like red, blue and yellow.

• The observation of colour depends on:
  • The range and intensity of wavelengths of visible light emitted by a light source, and the various media and materials it encounters on its journey to the retina of a human eye
  • Optical phenomena such as absorption, dispersion, diffraction, polarization, reflection, refraction, scattering and transmission.
  • Predispositions of an observer, such as their personal and social experience, health and state of mind.

• A light source is a natural or man-made object that emits one or more wavelengths of light.
• Natural light sources include:
  • The Sun is the most important natural light source in our lives and emits every wavelength of light in the visible spectrum.
  • Celestial sources of light include other stars, comets and meteors.
  • Other natural sources of light include lightning, volcanoes and forest fires.
• There are also bio-luminescent light sources including some species of fish and insects as well as types of bacteria and algae.
• Man-made light sources include:
  • Man-made light sources of the most simple type include natural tars and resins, wax candles, lamps that burn oil, fats or paraffin and gas lamps
  • Tungsten lights: These are a type of incandescent source which means they radiate light when electricity is used to heat a filament inside a glass bulb.
  • Halogen bulbs: These are more efficient and long-lasting versions of incandescent tungsten lamps and produce a very uniform bright light throughout the bulb’s lifetime.
  • Fluorescent lights: These are non-incandescent sources of light. They generally work by passing electricity through a glass tube of gas such as mercury, neon, argon or xenon instead of a filament. Fluorescent lamps are very efficient at emitting visible light, produce less waste heat, and typically last much longer than incandescent lamps.
  • LED lights: An LED (Light Emitting Diode) is an electroluminescent light source. It produces light by passing an electrical charge across the junction of a semiconductor. An LED light typically emits a single colour of light which is composed of a very narrow range of wavelengths.
• Made-made lights can emit a single wavelength, bands of wavelengths or combinations of wavelengths.

As light crosses the boundary between two transparent media, the law of refraction (Snell’s law) states the relationship between the angle of incidence and angle of refraction of the light with reference to the refractive indices of both media as follows:

When electromagnetic radiation (light) of a specific frequency crosses the interface of any given pair of media, the ratio of the sines of the angles of incidence and the sines of the angles of refraction is a constant in every case.

• Snell’s law deals with the fact that for an incident ray approaching the boundary of two media, the sine of the angle of incidence multiplied by the index of refraction of the first medium is equal to the sine of the angle of refraction multiplied by the index of refraction of the second medium.
• Snell’s law deals with the fact that the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is constant when a light ray passes across the boundary from one medium to another.
• Snell’s law can be used to calculate the angle of incidence or refraction associated with the use of lenses, prisms and other everyday materials.
• When using Snell’s law:
  • The angles of incidence and refraction are measured between the direction of a ray of light and the normal – where the normal is an imaginary line drawn on a ray diagram perpendicular to, so at a right angle to (900), to the boundary between two media.
  • The wavelength of the incident light is accounted for.
  • The refractive indices used are selected for the pair of media concerned.
  • The speed of light is expressed in metres per second (m/s).

Wavelength is a measurement from any point on the path of a wave to the same point on its next oscillation. The measurement is made parallel to the centre-line of the wave.

• The wavelength of an electromagnetic wave is measured in metres.
• Each type of electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves, visible light and gamma waves,  forms a band of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum.
• The visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is composed of the range of wavelengths that correspond with all the different colours we see in the world.
• Human beings don’t see wavelengths of visible light, but they do see the spectral colours that correspond with each wavelength and the other colours produced when different wavelengths are combined.
• The wavelength of visible light is measured in nanometres. There are 1,000,000,000 nanometres to a metre.