Hi Guys,
Comparing violet and red light, violet light refracts the most away from the normal as it enters the prism and refracts the most towards the normal as it leaves the prism. How does it reflect the reflective index’s of violet and red in the two scenarios. Does violet have the greater refractive index as it enters the prism but red have the greatest refractive index as it leaves the prism?
All replies will be much appreciated. Thanks
Violet light has a higher refractive index than red.
Basically the amount of bending depends on two things:
a) change in speed
b) the angle of the incident ray
Violet light has a refractive index of 1.532 while red has a refractive index of 1.513. Also red light has a longer wavelength that violet light and iirc, this could also affect the refraction of the light on the prism. Hope that helps
P.S. Just a quick fact, if you didn't realise already, the scenario that you have given me is one that is similar to newton's experiment using a triangular block of glass called a prism. He used it to model the spectrum of colours.