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An optical prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that are designed to refract light. At least one surface must be angled — elements with two parallel surfaces are not prisms.
Photopic (black) and scotopic (green) luminous efficiency functions. The horizontal axis is wavelength in nm. See luminous efficiency function for more info. The visible spectrum is limited to wavelengths that can both reach the retina and trigger visual phototransduction (excite a visual opsin ).
Different kinds of aberrations may have equal RMS across the pupil but have different effects on vision, therefore, RMS error is unrelated to visual performance. The majority of eyes have total RMS values less than 0.3 μm.
Chromatic aberration. In optics, chromatic aberration ( CA ), also called chromatic distortion and spherochromatism, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. [1] It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the lens elements varies with the wavelength of light.
History of optics. Modern ophthalmic lens making machine. Optics began with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, followed by theories on light and vision developed by ancient Greek philosophers, and the development of geometrical optics in the Greco-Roman world. The word optics is derived from the Greek term ...
The refractive index of many materials (such as glass) varies with the wavelength or color of the light used, a phenomenon known as dispersion. This causes light of different colors to be refracted differently and to leave the prism at different angles, creating an effect similar to a rainbow.
Psychology. Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum reflected by objects in the environment.
Material dispersion can be a desirable or undesirable effect in optical applications. The dispersion of light by glass prisms is used to construct spectrometers and spectroradiometers. However, in lenses, dispersion causes chromatic aberration, an undesired effect that may degrade images in microscopes, telescopes, and photographic objectives.
Physical colors are temporary. They exist when light combines with cloudy transparent or translucent media, such as smoke, fog, or a glass prism. They are comprehensible because we know that they result from part of the qualitative division of retinal activity. Light is the external physical stimulus of the retina's activity.
Abbe number. In optics and lens design, the Abbe number, also known as the V-number or constringence of a transparent material, is an approximate measure of the material's dispersion (change of refractive index versus wavelength), with high values of V indicating low dispersion.