Ice and polarized light Daniela Rapava Citation: The Physics Teacher 53, 320 (2015); doi: 10.1119/1.4917453 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4917453 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/53/5?ver=pdfcov Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers Articles you may be interested in Balanced polarimeter: A cost-effective approach for measuring the polarization of light Am. J. Phys. 83, 91 (2015); 10.1119/1.4896747 Polarization and airplane debris Phys. Teach. 52, 260 (2014); 10.1119/1.4872397 Some Activities with Polarized Light from a Laptop LCD Screen Phys. Teach. 46, 229 (2008); 10.1119/1.2895673 Teaching Light Polarization with Cell Phones Phys. Teach. 45, 469 (2007); 10.1119/1.2798355 A Simple Apparatus for Optical Polarization Experiments Phys. Teach. 41, 537 (2003); 10.1119/1.1631625 This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AAPT content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP: 171.224.67.107 On: Sun, 31 May 2015 08:40:28
Citation: The Physics Teacher 53, 320 (2015); doi:
10.1119/1.4917453 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4917453
View Table of Contents:
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/53/5?ver=pdfcov
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
Articles you may be interested in Balanced polarimeter: A
cost-effective approach for measuring the polarization of light Am.
J. Phys. 83, 91 (2015); 10.1119/1.4896747
Polarization and airplane debris Phys. Teach. 52, 260 (2014);
10.1119/1.4872397
Some Activities with Polarized Light from a Laptop LCD Screen
Phys. Teach. 46, 229 (2008); 10.1119/1.2895673
A Simple Apparatus for Optical Polarization Experiments Phys.
Teach. 41, 537 (2003); 10.1119/1.1631625
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse
of AAPT content is subject to the terms at:
http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to
IP:171.224.67.107 On: Sun, 31 May 2015 08:40:28
320 The Physics Teacher Vol. 53, May 2015
Visual Physics Ice and polarized lightDaniela Rapava
http://danielaphoto.webnode.sk/fotogaleria/KHaP M. HellaObservatory
RimavskaSobota97901 Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia
Submit your own photos of visual physics: email pictures to
[email protected]
Using circular polarizing anti-glare sheets taken from an old
monitor from her personal computer, Daniela Rapava fashioned her
own polariscope, looking much like a terrarium (see inset above).
Objects to be photographed (such as ice formations, or clear
plastics or cellophane) are placed in the polariscope between two
such sheets, polarizer and analyzer. Sunlight containing all colors
enters the polarizer from the backside and is filtered, becoming
circularly polarized, meaning the vertical and horizontal
components of the electric field are out of phase by exactly 90
degrees.The ice is birefringent, thus each colors vertical and
horizontal components travel through the ice at slightly different
speeds, changing their relative phase. The emerg-ing light signal
from a particular region of the ice still has all the colors but
each color now has a different phase relationship between its
horizontal and vertical com-ponents. Thus only one particular
color, the one whose components combine so that it can make it
through the analyzing filter on the front side of the polariscope,
is the color that dominates the image at that location. The
resulting rainbows hint at the competing stresses as the ice
crystals were forming. Note that a bit of melting has occurred
between the two photos; which one would you say was snapped
first?
DOI: 10.1119/1.4917453 This article is copyrighted as indicated
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