flint glass
- noun
- Specialized
:
vidrio de flint
- The lens was made from flint glass to reduce chromatic aberration.
Examples
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Prisms constructed from flint glass are chosen for their excellent light dispersion properties.
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Many telescopes use flint glass for better clarity.
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The invention of flint glass revolutionized the field of optical instrument design.
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The lens was made of flint glass.
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Prisms constructed from flint glass are chosen for their excellent light dispersion properties.
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The lens was made from flint glass to reduce chromatic aberration.
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Many telescopes use flint glass for better clarity.
Synonyms
1
6.0
A clear, strong glass that lens makers use for camera and telescope lenses
A type of glass that bends light strongly and separates colors in lenses and prisms
How Refractive
Surface Forms
Morphology
flint + glass
The phrase is compositionally built from 'flint' + 'glass', so a learner who knows 'flint' and 'glass' can infer it denotes a type of glass associated with flint (e.g., made from or resembling flint) and thus grasp the basic category. However, the precise technical properties (high dispersion, high refractive index) are specialized and not predictable from the constituents alone, so full meaning requires domain knowledge.
Etymology
The noun flint glass may come from old glassmakers who used ground flint, a hard stone, to make a very clear, sparkly glass. That glass 'bends' and 'spreads' light more than ordinary glass, so flint glass became the name for the special glass used in lenses and prisms.