Question

Consider a situation involving two Polaroid disks and a source of light.

a. What can you say about the orientation of the electric field vectors of the waves coming from the light source when no Polaroid disks are placed in front of it?

b. Now suppose you mount one disk in front of the light source. What can you now say about the orientation of the electric field vectors of the light coming from the light source after passing through the polarizer?

c. Suppose the first disk is still mounted in front of the light source. You now rotate the second disk in front of the first one. What happens when the axes of the two Polaroids are parallel? What about when they are perpendicular?

d. Considering that the electric field is a vector, explain the variation of intensity when the Polaroids are between parallel and perpendicular.

Answer 1