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Kant Destroyer
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Homework Statement
A beam of polarized light of intensity 43.0 W/m2 is sent through a system of two polarizing
sheets. Relative to the polarization direction of that incident light, the polarizing directions of the sheets
are at angles θ for the first sheet and 90 degrees for the second sheet. If the intensity of the final, transmitted light is 8.6 W/m2, what is the value of θ?
Homework Equations
I = I0cos2(θ)
The Attempt at a Solution
I recognized that to solve the problem I had to work backwards to solve for θ.
I used the equation I = I0cos2(θ) and found that Ifinal = I1cos2(90-θ), where I1 is the intensity of the light after passing through the first polarizing sheet. Now I'm unsure where to head with this because I have two unknown variables, I1 and (90-θ). I am also lacking another equation to use a system of equations as far as I can tell.