Tuesday 29 April 2014

Polarised in Ambleside


 
These two pictures of the House on the Bridge in Ambleside were taken through my polarising sunglasses. I twisted the glasses through 90 degrees between the photographs. It shows that at the angle between me and the water, the reflected light from the water is polarised. There is little reflected sunlight from the surface of the water in the first picture but a lot in the second picture. Light is a transverse wave which means that the direction of propagation of the energy is at 90 degrees to the direction of oscillation. In other words, the waves vibrate side to side. A polarising filter is modelled as a slits through which waves have to pass. If they vibrate side to side in line with the slits, the light gets through. That's the second picture. Twisting the slits through 90 degrees means that the waves now vibrate across the slits and can't get through. Sound is a longitudinal wave: the direction of propagation of energy is in line with the direction of oscillation. It can never vibrate across the line of the slits so can never be polarised. (Please note: slits is a way of explaining. In truth, in a plastic polarising filter it is about long chain molecules absorbing waves in one direction but not at 90 degrees)