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Why is the angle of a triangular prism equal to the result of the following 2 calculations? (Experiment with optical goniometer)

Why is the angle of a triangular prism equal to the result of the following 2 calculations? (Experiment with optical goniometer)

Grade:9

1 Answers

Vikas TU
14149 Points
3 years ago
The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence." Draw a triangle on a piece of paper. ( For this situation, the third dimension of the prism is irrelevant). Draw two parallel lines originating from roughly the direction the apex of the prism is pointing. It's not necessary to be exactly in that direction, as you'll see. Those lines hit the two sides of the prism and reflect, relative to the normal to the surface, according to the rule I quoted.
Since you know (I hope! ) about complementary angles and the various theorems from trigonometry about the interior and exterior angles of a triangle, you'll soon see why the formula works.
The second formulation is similar, although you have added the possibility of an error term due to inexact reading of the goniometer.

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