How the lab works
Light changes speed in glass. That change makes a ray bend. Each color bends by a different amount.
Some light bounces off each face. When a ray inside hits at a steep angle, all of it can bounce back in. This is called total internal reflection.
At green light, the critical angle for this glass in air is —. The critical angle is the point where the ray can no longer leave that face.
This is a flat view of a prism with smooth, bare glass faces. It uses Snell’s law and glass data to trace rays. It splits ray power at each face using Fresnel’s laws. Small, faint rays are cut off to keep the lab fast.
It does not model waves, rough faces, coatings, or light loss in thick glass. Ray colors on screen are a guide to color. Their brightness is scaled for viewing.
Light and prisms · Glass data