A beam of white light (400 – 700 nm) is shone at a small equilateral quartz pris

Question

A beam of white light (400 – 700 nm) is shone at a small equilateral quartz prism. 1.5 m behind the prism is a large screen. What is observed on the screen, and where, and what size, if (A) the beam is incident on a vertex of the prism, and (B) if the beam is incident normal to one of the faces? Assume both the prism and the width of the beam are non-zero but negligible relative to the prism-screen distance. The index of refraction of quartz for 400 nm light is 1.47 and it is 1.45 for 700 nm light.

Explanation / Answer

A)When light incidents on the vertex of prism there is no refraction of light ,so dispersion will not take place ,so nothing will be seen except white light beam.

B)When light incident normally incident angle is zero and refractive angle is also zero, so from Snell's law no refraction occure.If there is no refraction there is no dispersion.So here also white light will be seen.

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