Why is the following situation impossible? A technician is measuring the index of refraction of a solid material by observing the polarization of light reflected from its surface. She notices that when a light beam is projected from air onto the material surface, the reflected light is totally polarized parallel to the surface when the incident angle is 41.0°.

Why is the following situation impossible? A technician is measuring the index of refraction of a solid material by observing the polarization of light reflected from its surface. She notices that when a light beam is projected from air onto the material surface, the reflected light is totally polarized parallel to the surface when the incident angle is 41.0°.

Principles of Physics: A Calculus-Based Text

5th Edition

ISBN:9781133104261

Author:Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett

Publisher:Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett

Chapter25: Reflection And Refraction Of Light

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 19P: Unpolarized light in vacuum is incident onto a sheet of glass with index of refraction n. The...

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Light traveling in a medium of index of refraction n1 is incident on another medium having an index of refraction n2. Under which of the following conditions can total internal reflection occur at the interface of the two media? (a) The indices of refraction have the relation n2 n1. (b) The indices of refraction have the relation n1 n2. (c) Light travels slower in the second medium than in the first. (d) The angle of incidence is less than the critical angle. (e) The angle of incidence must equal the angle of refraction.
Unpolarized light in vacuum is incident onto a sheet of glass with index of refraction n. The reflected and refracted rays are perpendicular to each other. Find the angle of incidence. This angle is called Brewsters angle or the polarizing angle. In this situation, the reflected light is linearly polarized, with its electric field restricted to be perpendicular to the plane containing the rays and the normal.
The index of refraction for water is about 43. What happens as a beam of light travels from air into water? (a) Its speed increases to 43c, and its frequency decreases. (b) Its speed decreases to 34c, and its wavelength decreases by a factor of 34. (c) Its speed decreases to 34c, and its wavelength increases by a factor of 43. (d) Its speed and frequency remain the same. (e) Its speed decreases to 34c, and its frequency increases.
You shine a beam of polarized light in air on a piece of dense flint glass 1n = 1.662. (a) If the polarization direction is perpendicular to the plane of incidence, is there an angle of incidence for which no light is reflected from the glass? If so, what is this angle? (b) Repeat part (a) if the polarization direction is in the plane of incidence.
A block of a transparent solid sits on top of the horizontal surface of a block of glass. A ray of light traveling in the glass is incident on the top surface of the glass at an angle of 62.0 with respect to the normal to the surface. The light has wavelength 447 nm in the glass and 315 nm in the transparent solid. What angle does the ray that refracts into the transparent solid make with the normal to the surface?
Unpolarized light is sent into a system of three polarizing sheets. The angles θ1, θ2, and θ3 of the polarizing directions is measured counterclockwise from the positive direction of the y axis. Angles θ1 and θ3 are fixed, but angle θ2 can be varied. The figure gives the intensity of the light emerging from sheet 3 as a function of θ2. (a) From the intensity plot, what are the possible orientations of the first and third polarizers? Draw a sketch of the situation. (b) What percentage of the light’s initial intensity is transmitted by the three-sheet system when θ2 = 90°? Answer: 7.3%
Light in air (assume n = 1) strikes the surface of a liquid of index of refraction nℓ at the polarizing angle. The part of the beam refracted into the liquid strikes a submerged slab of material with refractive index n as shown. The light reflected from the upper surface of the slab is completely polarized. Find the angle θ between the water surface and the surface of the slab as a function of n and nℓ.
Brewster plates are used in laser cavities to polarize the light with the smallest amount of power loss possible (see figure). Suppose the laser cavity is filled with air (n = 1) and the Brewster's plate is made of glass (ng = 1.5). a) What is the angle the normal to the plate must make with respect to the laser beam, θB, if the polarization of the reflected light is maximized? Answer in radians. b) If instead this were a dye laser, whose cavity is filled with a liquid solution with ns = 1.3. What is the angle, θB, in radians?
A scuba diver is sitting on a boat while waiting to go on a dive and sees light reflected from the water's surface. At what angle of reflection will this light be completely polarized? The index of refraction of water is 1.333.
The angle of incidence of a light beam in air onto a reflecting surface is continuously variable. The reflected ray is found to be completely polarized when the angle of incidence is 63.0°. (a) What is the index of refraction of the reflecting material? (b) If some of the incident light (at an angle of 63.0°) passes into the material below the surface, what is the angle of refraction? answer in degrees °
In the figure, a beam of unpolarized light, with intensity 49 W/m2, is sent into a system of two polarizing sheets with polarizing directions at angles θ1 = 78˚ and θ2 = 90˚ to the y axis. What is the intensity of the light transmitted by the system?
A thin beam of light in air is incident on the surface of a lanthanum flint glass plate having a refractive index of 1.80. What is the angle of incidence θa with this plate for which the angle of refraction is θ2/2? Both angles are measured relative to the normal. NOTE: The final answer should be 51.68°.