What is the Origin of the Term 'Prism'?

[NumFront]

Hello respected physics experts,

I want to ask why prism is called prism. Can you explain please?

Thanks.

 

[Nugatory]

I want to ask why prism is called prism. Can you explain please?

Google for "prism etymology".

 

[sophiecentaur]

The word "prism" refers to the shape of a particular set of polyhedra and is not associated with glass, particularly.

 

[NumFront]

https://www.etymonline.com/word/prism

I have checked the etymology form this dictionary. The words "prism" comes from a Latin word "prisma" which means "something sawed".

I don't understand how this meaning ("something sawed") relates to a prism. Could you please expand on this meaning and explain what the dictionary refers to when it says "something sawed"? Which thing is sawed and how/why it is sawed?

 

[Torbert]

Freehanding a smooth plane with a mallet and a chisel, or just a hammer stone, is difficult on large surfaces.
A flattened copper strip with sand as an abrasive would saw stone surfaces, bronze strips with jagged teeth would saw wood. These surfaces would not necessarily be triangular, merely flat planes.
These perfect shapes were given their own description due to being obviously distinct from a chipped surface.
Common usage beginning in the 1500's gave the term its present day meaning of a sawn and polished glass triangle.
A shiny rainbow overwhelmed any previous meaning.

 

[Klystron]

Note also that early texts on optics, natural science and mathematics were written and published in contemporary Latin. Many scholarly terms entered the vernacular from Latin and Greek. For example consider the origin of 'calculus', literally 'pebbles'. Small stones probably have the same relation to counting as the shape of an axe head or arrangement of teeth on a saw blade have to 'prism'.

 

[Mark44]

Small stones probably have the same relation to counting as the shape of an axe head or arrangement of teeth on a saw blade have to 'prism'.

I think the relationship between "small stones" and "calculus" is a somewhat stronger relation. I believe the precursors to an abacus were a collection of pebbles, possibly followed by a flat piece of wood with the pebbles in grooves.

 

[arivero]

It is one of the partition pieces of the lost proof of the volume of a pyramid by Democritus.

And while we are it, why is a pyramid called pyramid?

 

[arivero]

Which thing is sawed and how/why it is sawed?

Mi thinking is, lot at figures 9.4.3 and 9.5.1 of this book: https://books.google.es/books?id=ruRoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA206&lpg=PA206&dq=yang+ma+volume+pyramid&source=bl&ots=CpXNwHQeKP&sig=ACfU3U0LsnS3D88pElOClvp7SDIjqmBSoQ&hl=es&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijxMndmsbjAhX86OAKHXfdAKsQ6AEwDXoECDcQAQ#v=onepage&q=yang ma volume pyramid&f=false

Or here: https://www.maa.org/book/export/html/842718

Clearly the prism is sawed from the pyramid, and also from wedge, in order to obtain recursive formulas for the volume. But on the other hand the chinese name for the prism is "moat wall", unrelated to this cut.

 

[hmmm27]

I want to ask why prism is called prism. Can you explain please?

The projection of a one-dimensional object (a line) through a three-dimensional object (a solid), creates a two-dimensional object (a plane).

So "A saw cut is a flat surface".

The rest is linguistics history : good luck with that : it's pretty convolute.

calculus

Chalk is pretty easy to break into smaller pieces, then even smaller pieces, etc. ?

 

[kith]

You can get various kinds of prisms by sawing rectangular cuboids. Maybe that's related to the origin of the term?