Prism sweep under different rotation conventions

ID: prism-sweep-under-different-rotation-conventions

For a prism in air with fixed apex angle , Snell's law gives , and . The exit angle is relative to the moving exit-face normal; the deviation is relative to the incoming beam. Rotating the prism while keeping the incident beam fixed changes the laboratory outgoing direction by . Steering the incoming beam while fixing the prism instead changes it by . These are distinct experiments; emergence and total-internal-reflection conditions must also be checked.

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