Thursday, 28 July 2016

Blue Sun at Charnock Richard Services

 In the car park of Charnock Richard services on the M6, I noticed that the Sun was reflected in a puddle (see above). What was notable is that through my polarising sun glasses, the Sun was BLUE. I have noticed similar effects before but this was very clear. Reflection polarises light provided that the angle of incidence is bigger than the Brewster angle. Next time, I need to vary my observation angle in case different colours have different Brewster angles. Or is it that blue light is polarised one way and the other colours have different polarisation? I didn't think to rotate the polariser.
 And a wider angle to show clearly that the thin-film oil effect was only in the puddle on the right and was not responsible for the blue sun.