The Fisherman's Polarized Sunglasses · AI Generator #GEN-1C8BA8E3
Physics · optics
Problem
A fisherman uses polarized sunglasses to reduce glare from the water surface. The sunglasses have a polarizing filter oriented to block horizontally polarized light. When the fisherman looks at the water surface at the Brewster angle, he notices that the reflected glare is almost completely eliminated.
Later, the fisherman holds up a second pair of identical polarized sunglasses and rotates them while looking through both pairs at the same water surface. He finds that when the second pair is rotated by an angle θ=30° relative to the first pair, the intensity of light reaching his eyes is reduced to exactly 25% of what it would be with just the first pair alone.
(a) What is the refractive index of water that allows the fisherman's technique to work so effectively?
(b) Verify that the fisherman's observation about the 25% intensity is consistent with the laws of optics when θ=30°.