What Angle Does the Polarizing Sheet's Axis Make with the Horizontal Direction?

[Kathi201]

Light known to be polarized in the horizontal direction is incident on a polarizing sheet. It is observed that only 15 percent of the intensity of the incident light is transmitted through the sheet. What angle does the transmission axis of the sheet make with the horizontal?

I am not quite sure how to figure out what the intensity of the light is. I know that I multiply that by .15 but I do not know how to figure out the value.

 

[Redbelly98]

See the formula for transmission I gave in the other post.

 

[thomate1]

The angle of transmission in this scenario can be determined using Malus' Law, which states that the intensity of polarized light transmitted through a polarizing sheet is proportional to the cosine squared of the angle between the transmission axis of the sheet and the direction of polarization of the incident light. In this case, we know that only 15 percent of the intensity of the incident light is transmitted, so we can set up the equation as follows:

I = I0cos^2θ

Where I is the transmitted intensity, I0 is the incident intensity, and θ is the angle between the transmission axis and the direction of polarization. Rearranging the equation to solve for θ, we get:

θ = cos^-1√(I/I0)

Substituting in the known values, we get:

θ = cos^-1√(0.15)

θ = 60.2 degrees

Therefore, the transmission axis of the sheet makes an angle of approximately 60.2 degrees with the horizontal. This means that the sheet is oriented at an angle of 30.1 degrees from the direction of polarization of the incident light.