Question

Pile of plates can be used to produce completely polarised light due to:

Answer 1

Hint: We know that due to the dual nature of light they show the properties of both waves and particles. We can better understand the nature of light waves by studying the polarization of light waves. We know that polarization is nothing but restricting the orientation of light waves.

Complete step-by-step solution:
As we know that light waves are traversal in nature and move in all possible directions at any given time and space. Also, in a transverse wave, the oscillation of the particles is perpendicular to the direction along which the wave moves. Since light is an electromagnetic or em wave, it has an electric and magnetic component of the waves, which are perpendicular to each other and the direction along which the wave moves.
 However, we can restrict the motion along which the light waves travel, this effect is called polarization of light waves.
Polarization can be caused due to following properties of light, majorly reflection, refraction, transmission or scattering.
Here, when a plié of plates are stacked on top of each other, they act as parallel planes, thus polarizing the incident light , as the light moves from one medium to another. Since we know that light bends when it moves along different mediums, this property of light is called refraction.
Hence we can conclude that the polarization of light due to a pile of plates is called the polarization by refraction.

Note: There are broadly three types of polarization depending on the nature of the wave, they are linear polarization, circular polarization and elliptical polarization. Polarization can be classified into reflection, refraction, transmission or scattering on the basis of how they are formed.