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Effect of a polarizer/analyzer on partially polarized light
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[QUOTE="FranzDiCoccio, post: 6868980, member: 141434"] Hi all, I discovered that the book comes with an Instructor's Manual. I asked around and someone provided the "official" solution to problem 62. The "reasoning and solution" seems to indicate that there was no error in referring to fig. 24.21. The reasoning never explicitly mentions this, but kind of confirms that the polarizer and analyzer are rotated together by the same amount. Indeed the calculations are exactly as in the second scenario in my OP, in that both the maximum and minimum intensity are proportional to [itex]\cos^2 \theta[/itex]. If there was only one polarizing sheet, like in fig. 24.20, there would not be such a factor (like in my first scenario). Also, as [USER=334404]@haruspex[/USER] observes, the text of the problem explicitly mentions a photocell, which is present in fig 24.21 and absent in fig. 24.20. I'd be curious to see whether more recent editions clarify that the polarizer and analyzer must be rotated together. I do not think that this is obvious from what is explained in the book: for instance, the caption of fig. 24.21 explicitly says that [itex]\theta[/itex] changes. This is confusing for a student, I think. After all this seems to be one of those problem that is immediately clear only to people whose job is inventing textbook problems. [/QUOTE]
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Effect of a polarizer/analyzer on partially polarized light
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