Question #f94f9

1 Answer
Dec 9, 2014

Polarization is giving a wave a certain direction or orientation.

When dealing with polarizing light, we can think of a light wave as a folded paper plane.
instructables.com

It has a tip, a bottom fold, a left wing, and a right wing. You can point it any direction, but it will always have the same "shape"

Light waves are very similar: they have electric fields in one direction, and magnetic fields in the other (like a cross or arrow).

Normally, the light we get from the sun is pointed in random directions.
When we polarize light, we make light point some direction
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There's much more to the how, why, and what of polarization, but I hope this helped out! For further reading, check out the wikipedia page: Polarization of waves