In: Physics
Consider how the intensity of light changes as it passes between two Polaroid disks at different angles to each other. (For this scenario, suppose that the polaroid closest to the light source remains fixed with the zero degree marking pointing straight up. Therefore, the second Polaroid disk is the one being rotated, and the angles for the graph should be the angle between the zero degree marking of the first disk and the position of the second disk. )
a. With intensity on the y axis, and angle in 45 degree increments on the x axis, sketch a graph of how the intensity of a light varies under various orientations of the two disks.
b. What is the mathematical relationship here? Explain how you arrived at this conclusion.
c. Based on the fact that the intensity of a light wave is proportional to the square of the electric field magnitude, explain why the transmitted intensity should have this mathematical dependence on the angle.