Q21DQ - University Physics with Modern Physics

Question

Light scattered from the blue sky is strongly polarized because of the nature of the scattering process described in Section 33.6. But light scattered from white clouds is usually not polarized. Why not?

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

 The molecules in the clouds are randomly oriented which causes multiple scatterings and so they are considered to produce unpolarized light.

Step 1: (a) Concept of Polarization of light.

The transverse waves are the waves in which the oscillation direction and the direction of the propagating wave are perpendicular to each other. Polarization is the concept of property applied to the transverse waves for specifying the orientations of the oscillations specifically.

Step 2: (b) Explanation of the argument.

The sky is blue and so it can be concluded that the molecules there are all aligned in a single direction. The clouds are white, which concludes that the molecules there are aligned randomly in every direction at the same time causing multiple scatterings. This is the case of unpolarized light.