Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 2

Describe the path of a light ray through a prism or lens.

Step 1 of 2

As a ray of light hits the surface of a prism the light is bent because it is passing from air into the prism. The normal is an imaginary line that is perpendicular to the surface of the prism. The light is bent towards the normal.

As the light passes from the prism and back into the air, the light is bent again. This time the light is bent away from the normal. A prism will separate out the different wavelengths of light resulting in a colored spectrum.