Amici prism

noun

Ami·​ci prism

əˈmēchē-

: a composite prism used in direct-vision spectroscopes and made by combining alternate flint and crown glass components with their refracting edges in opposite directions and with prism angles so chosen that nonhomogeneous light passing through the prism is dispersed into a spectrum, the beam as a whole undergoing no net deviation compare achromatic prism

Word History

Etymology

after Giovanni Battista Amici †1863 Italian astronomer

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined above

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