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Q.What is polarization of light? State and explain Brewster's law.

Jharkhand JacJAC Intermediate Board 2019Subjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
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Polarisation confines a transverse wave's oscillation to a single plane; Brewster's law identifies the specific angle of incidence at which reflected light becomes fully plane-polarised, given by n = tan(theta_B).

Polarisation of light: Ordinary (unpolarised) light consists of electric field vibrations in all directions perpendicular to its direction of propagation. Polarisation is the process of restricting these vibrations to just one plane (containing the direction of propagation). This can be achieved by selective absorption (Polaroids), by reflection, or by scattering.

Brewster's Law: When unpolarised light is incident on the boundary of a transparent (refracting) medium at a particular angle, called the polarising angle or Brewster's angle θB\theta_B, the light reflected from the surface is completely plane-polarised (with its vibrations perpendicular to the plane of incidence), while the refracted ray remains partially polarised.

Brewster found that this special condition occurs exactly when the reflected ray and the refracted ray are perpendicular to each other, i.e.

θB+θr=90∘\theta_B + \theta_r = 90^\circ

Derivation of Brewster's law: By Snell's law at the interface (light going from medium 1, say air, into medium 2 of refractive index nn): …

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