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Is a process that modifies light waves so they vibrate in a single plane

1 Answer

4 votes

The process you're fishing for is "polarization", but that's a

misleading description.

Polarization doesn't do anything to change the light waves.

It simply filters out (absorbs, as with a polarizing filter) the

light waves that aren't vibrating in the desired plane, and

allows only those that are to pass.

The intensity of a light beam is always reduced after

polarizing it, because much (most) of the original light

has been removed.

A laser light source may be thought of as an exception,

since everything coming out of the laser is polarized.

User Jonathan Swartz
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