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Re: Angle of deviation



The simple answer is: it's the acute angle.

I suspect the wording quoted from the text is a bit awkward. The quoted
wording says "the original path." Some might think this means where the
original ray has actually travelled, i.e. the portion before the prism.
It does not. Project the incident ray straight through the prism and
beyond. The angle of deviation is the angle between this projection
(after the prism) and the actual refracted ray (obviously after the
prism).

If you are interested, I have two small publications about some
interesting things with prisms. The first is fairly old and is in The
Physics Teacher. The second is more recent and is in The Journal of
Chemical Education.

Measuring Refractive Indices, Phy. Teach. 24, (March 1986) pg 160.

A Liquid prism for Refractive Index Studies, J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78,
1479.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.