constringence

constringence, in optics, a measure of the dispersive power of a transparent substance for the visible spectrum. Letting n_F, n_D, and n_C represent the indices of refraction for light of the wavelengths λ_F (blue), λ_D (yellow), and λ_C (red), the constringence (commonly denoted by the Greek letter nu, ν) is defined by the equation ν = (n_D - 1)/(n_F - n_C) and represents, in a prism, the ratio of the mean deviation of the spectrum as a whole from the direction of the incident light beam to the angular fanning out of the spectrum itself.