The word prism comes from the Greek, and from the Latin "prism." In the field of geometryIt is understood by body or geometric and solid figure that belongs to the genus of polyhedra and has two equal ends or faces, which are the bases and all its sides are flat, with the same number of parallelograms as sides each of the bases has, and the parallelograms are called the lateral faces of the prism. There are several types of prism depending on whether the bases are triangles, it is called a triangular prism, if the bases are pentagons it will be a pentagonal prism, if they are whose bases are regular polygons they are regular, and if the bases are parallelograms they are parallelepipeds, among others. The bases should not always be arranged horizontally and their height depends on the distance between the two bases.
On the other hand, in optics, the prism is called a prismatic crystal with a triangular base that is used to reflect, decompose and reflect light, said light decomposes into its primary colors when passing through a prism, White light generates seven colors such as red, yellow, orange, blue, green, purple and indigo. There are refractive prisms, these reflect light and are used in monocular and prismatic instruments; then there are the polarizers that these divide the light into fragments with different polarization; and finally the dispersives that allow the decomposition of the luminosity in the rainbow spectrum.
This word is also used to define a point of view or opinion of an individual to consider or take into account an issue or element. And finally this term was given by name to the asteroid A. Schwassmann discovered in March 1931.
