[comp.graphics] Need Image of a prism

uselton@nas.nasa.gov (Samuel P. Uselton) (12/01/90)

In article <21498@well.sf.ca.us> Jef Poskanzer <jef@well.sf.ca.us> writes:
>In the referenced message, musgrave-forest@cs.yale.edu (F. Ken Musgrave) wrote:
>}  I can provide you with an image of a prism, but not ala Pink Floyd.
>}For technical reasons peculiar to computer graphics, that image would
>}be VERY hard to do (as a physical simulation).
>
>That's funny, cause I have a print of a Floydish prism done by III in
>the late '70s...
>---
>Jef
>
I know the triple I (III) prism picture shown at SIGGRAPH (and in the slide 
set) and it is OBVIOUSLY not physically correct.  The spectrum changes as if
wavelength were a function of distance from the prism!  That is, one end of the
color spectrum is adjacent to the (exit face of the) prism and the colors
transition to the other end of the spectrum as the diverging beam nears the
right edge of the frame of the picture.

I used to use it in class to make the point about looking carefully at
"pretty" images that may not be what they seem.

Sam Uselton		ex-prof				uselton@nas.nasa.gov
employed by CSC		working for NASA		speaking for myself