HOMEWORK- POLARIZATION

 

1.     Suppose you look through two polarizing filters while holding one stationary and rotating the other in front of it. How many times does the transmitted light go from light to dark in one complete revolution of the rotating filter?

2.     Suggest methods that will enable you to determine if your sunglasses are polarized (without breaking them!).

3.     Explain the pilot's dilemma in the introduction to this chapter. Can you suggest a solution?

4.     Two polarizers are crossed (transmission axes at right angles) and a third polarizer is placed between them so that its transmission axis is 45o to the transmission axes of the other two. What happens? Why?

5.     Light from a laser is plane polarized in the vertical direction. If a linear polarizer is placed in the beam at an angle of 45o from the vertical axis, what percentage of the light will pass?

6.     The sketch at below shows a laser "Q-switch". The Pockels cell is a device that rotates the plane of polarization by 90o when a voltage is applied.  Explain how the beam's passage through the switch can be controlled by the voltage to the Pockels cell. Does turning the voltage on allow or stop the laser beam's passage?