Polarization of light through a pile of glass plates, using arc lamp.

6H20.40 • E+45+20

White light from a carbon arc hits a pile of glass plates at the polarizing angle of 57 deg . The reflected beam which hits the ceiling is shown to be polarized using Polaroid 1. The transmitted beam which hits a projection screen is shown to be mostly polarized using Polaroid 2. Looking at figure 1, the light hits the glass plates at the polarizing angle 57 deg , and the plane of incidence is the plane of the paper. All the light vibrating parallel to the plane of incidence is refracted. Some of the light vibrating perpendicular to the plane of incidence is reflected, and some is refracted. When the beam travels through many plates of glass, all the beams that are reflected are plane-polarized in the same plane (vibrating perpendicular to the plane of incidence). The beam of light that is refracted is a mixture of both planes of polarization, becoming more and more plane-polarized parallel to the plane of incidence (about 90% polarized with 15 glass plates). Polarization of light through a pile of glass plates using arc lamp. Ref.: Fundamentals of Physical Optics,-Jenkins & White,1st Ed., p.316-319