Minimum deviation

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/minimum-deviation

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is minimum deviation when light passes through a prism?It is the smallest angle that light bends when it goes through a prism. At this point, the light inside the prism travels straight along the base.
2. How do we find the minimum deviation angle?You look at the light emerging from the prism and measure the angle between the incoming and outgoing rays when the bending is smallest. Then you can use that angle to calculate the prism’s refractive index.

Angle of Incidence: The angle between an incident ray and the normal to a surface at the point of incidence.
Angle of Deviation: The angle between the incident ray's original direction and the emergent ray's final direction after refraction.
Refractive Index: A dimensionless number describing how light propagates through a medium, indicating the degree of bending.