Question

At what angle should the axes of two Polaroids be placed so as to reduce the intensity of the incident unpolarized light to

Answer 1

Answer:

Ok, the question is incomplete buy ill try to answer this in a general way.

Suppose that you have no-polarized light.

When that light hits one polaroid, the light becomes polarized along some line, and has an intensity I0.

Now, when polarized light hits a polaroid which axis is at an angle θ with respect to the polarization of the light, the intensity of the resulting beam is given by the Malus's law:

I(θ) = I0*cos^2(θ)

For example, if the axis of the polaroid is exactly the same as the one of the polarized light, then we have θ = 0°

and:

I(0°) = I0*cos^2(0°) = I0

So the intensity does not change.

Now, knowing the initial intensity, you can find the angle needed to get a given intensity.

For example, if the question was:

"At what angle should the axes of two Polaroids be placed so as to reduce the intensity of the incident unpolarized light to A"

We should solve:

I(θ) = A = I0*cos^2(θ)

(A/i0) = cos^2(θ)

√(A/I0) = cos(θ)

Acos(√(A/I0)) = θ