PRISM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Prism

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/prˈɪzəm/ Listen

noun

Prism n.

1.

(Geom.) A solid whose bases or ends are any similar, equal, and parallel plane figures, and whose sides are parallelograms. Note: Prisms of different forms are often named from the figure of their bases; as, a triangular prism, a quadrangular prism, a rhombic prism, etc.

2.

(Opt.) A transparent body, with usually three rectangular plane faces or sides, and two equal and parallel triangular ends or bases; used in experiments on refraction, dispersion, etc.

3.

(Crystallog.) A form the planes of which are parallel to the vertical axis. See Form, n., 13.

Achromatic prism (Opt.), a prism composed usually of two prisms of different transparent substances which have unequal dispersive powers, as two different kinds of glass, especially flint glass and crown glass, the difference of dispersive power being compensated by giving them different refracting angles, so that, when placed together so as to have opposite relative positions, a ray of light passed through them is refracted or bent into a new position, but is free from color.

Nicol's prism, Nicol prism. (Opt.) An instrument for experiments in polarization, consisting of a rhomb of Iceland spar, which has been bisected obliquely at a certain angle, and the two parts again joined with transparent cement, so that the ordinary image produced by double refraction is thrown out of the field by total reflection from the internal cemented surface, and the extraordinary, or polarized, image alone is transmitted.

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Etymology of 'Prism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prism" Quotes from Famous Books

... warmth, and for a little space his level rays shoot out and gild the tree tops and the distant hills. The snow springs to life. Dead white no longer, its dry, crystalline particles glitter in myriads of diamond facets with every colour of the prism. Then the sun is gone, and the lovely circle of rose pink over amethyst again stretches round the horizon, slowly fading until once more the pale primrose glows in the south against the purple sky with its silver stars. Thus sunrise and sunset form a continuous ...

— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck

... test pieces in the 10,000,000-lb. machine is a prism, having a base of 12 in. and being 24 in. high. The tests include not only those for compression or crushing strength, but also those for resistance to compressive strains of the prisms and cubes, when raised to high temperatures in muffles or kilns; resistance to weathering, freezing, ...

— Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 • Herbert M. Wilson

... spheres which the ancients imagined to be entered only through a gate of ivory, to be surrounded by pilasters of diamond, and surmounted by a dome arched with fawn-colored crystal, upon which played the various dyes of the prism; spheres, like the Mexican opal, whose kaleidoscopical foci are dimmed by olive-colored mists veiling and unveiling the inner glories; spheres, in which all is magical and supernatural, reminding us of the marvellous ...

— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt

... sun, through prism of the waterfall, And build us here a rainbow arch to span The years, and hold the citadel Of her abiding work for God ...

— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... the rear guard of the animals raced madly away for about seventy yards, whirled in a phalanx, and gazed back. Neither man moved. Simba continued to stare, and Kingozi had lifted his prism glasses. A tyro would have attempted to draw near for a finishing shot, and so would probably have been let in for a long chase. A freshly wounded animal, if kept moving, is capable of astonishing endurance. But these two knew better than that. In a very few minutes the zebra, without ...

— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

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