A report on Polarization (waves), Transverse wave and Light

Circular polarization on rubber thread, converted to linear polarization
Illustration of a simple (plane) transverse wave propagating through an elastic medium in the horizontal direction, with particles being displaced in the vertical direction. Only one layer of the material is shown
A triangular prism dispersing a beam of white light. The longer wavelengths (red) and the shorter wavelengths (blue) are separated.
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Illustration of the electric (red) and magnetic (blue) fields along a ray in a simple light wave. For any plane perpendicular to the ray, each field has always the same value at all points of the plane.
The electromagnetic spectrum, with the visible portion highlighted
A "vertically polarized" electromagnetic wave of wavelength λ has its electric field vector E (red) oscillating in the vertical direction. The magnetic field B (or H) is always at right angles to it (blue), and both are perpendicular to the direction of propagation (z).
Propagation of a transverse spherical wave in a 2d grid (empirical model)
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Electric field oscillation
Circular polarization mechanically generated on a rubber thread, converted to linear polarization by a mechanical polarizing filter.
Beam of sun light inside the cavity of Rocca ill'Abissu at Fondachelli-Fantina, Sicily
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Due to refraction, the straw dipped in water appears bent and the ruler scale compressed when viewed from a shallow angle.
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Hong Kong illuminated by colourful artificial lighting.
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Pierre Gassendi.
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Christiaan Huygens.
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Thomas Young's sketch of a double-slit experiment showing diffraction. Young's experiments supported the theory that light consists of waves.
Animation showing four different polarization states and three orthogonal projections.
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A circularly polarized wave as a sum of two linearly polarized components 90° out of phase
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Color pattern of a plastic box showing stress-induced birefringence when placed in between two crossed polarizers.
Paths taken by vectors in the Poincaré sphere under birefringence. The propagation modes (rotation axes) are shown with red, blue, and yellow lines, the initial vectors by thick black lines, and the paths they take by colored ellipses (which represent circles in three dimensions).
A stack of plates at Brewster's angle to a beam reflects off a fraction of the s-polarized light at each surface, leaving (after many such plates) a mainly p-polarized beam.
Stress in plastic glasses
Photomicrograph of a volcanic sand grain; upper picture is plane-polarized light, bottom picture is cross-polarized light, scale box at left-center is 0.25 millimeter.
Effect of a polarizer on reflection from mud flats. In the picture on the left, the horizontally oriented polarizer preferentially transmits those reflections; rotating the polarizer by 90° (right) as one would view using polarized sunglasses blocks almost all specularly reflected sunlight.
One can test whether sunglasses are polarized by looking through two pairs, with one perpendicular to the other. If both are polarized, all light will be blocked.
The effects of a polarizing filter (right image) on the sky in a photograph
Colored fringes in the Embassy Gardens Sky Pool when viewed through a polarizer, due to stress-induced birefringence in the skylight
Circular polarization through an airplane plastic window, 1989

Polarization (also polarisation) is a property applying to transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations.

- Polarization (waves)

The primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum and polarization.

- Light

Transverse waves that exhibit polarization include electromagnetic waves such as light and radio waves, gravitational waves, and transverse sound waves (shear waves) in solids.

- Polarization (waves)

Light is another example of a transverse wave, where the oscillations are the electric and magnetic fields, which point at right angles to the ideal light rays that describe the direction of propagation.

- Transverse wave

"Plane" here means that the direction of propagation is unchanging and the same over the whole medium; "linearly polarized" means that the direction of displacement too is unchanging and the same over the whole medium; and the magnitude of the displacement is a sinusoidal function only of time and of position along the direction of propagation.

- Transverse wave

In 1816 André-Marie Ampère gave Augustin-Jean Fresnel an idea that the polarization of light can be explained by the wave theory if light were a transverse wave.

- Light
Circular polarization on rubber thread, converted to linear polarization

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