3 ms·

Either way it is just refracted light, right? Same physics going on with either.

• mpyne 13y ago
  It's physics, yes, but since the light has a uniform wavelength you can't "split" the beam with a prism: you get one beam going in and only one beam going out. Curving the cable as the other comment mentions might make sense if the curvature were calculated precisely, as then some (and not all) of the light would escape instead of being refracted back inside the cable.
  • jlgreco 13y ago
    My understanding is that you can use a beam splitter created from two prisms that will split laser light. This is done during holography from what I understand. I don't entirely understand all of this, my optics is very rusty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography#Apparatus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography#Apparatus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection#Fractional_total_internal_reflection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection#Fract...
    • mpyne 13y ago
      Well a beam splitter as described in the Wikipedia page is moving past my own ability to describe, but the net effect from the double-prism description seems to resemble the effect of precisely curving the cable: Some light is able to internally reflect out the splitter while the rest proceeds as normal. But in this case the prism is 'just' a convenient way of getting the desired diagonal shape with materials of different refractiveness, you're not actually breaking light into its component wavelengths as you'd see in NSA's PRISM logo.