PHYSICS CLASSES +2. SC. 2ND YR.

2018-2019

SCATTERING OF LIGHT
The blue colour of the sky, colour of water in deep sea, the reddening of the sun at sunrise and sunset
are some the wonderful phenomena that can be explained by a phenomena of light known as scattering of
light.
Scattering of light:
 It is a general physical process in which light is forced to deflect from
its straight path due to its interaction with the particle of the medium
through which it passes.
 Basically, the process of re-radiation of light by the atoms & molecules
of the medium in all direction is known as scattering of light.
 Actually when the sun light enters to earth’s atmosphere, then the light
is absorbed by the atoms and the molecules of the gas and they re-emit
the light in all possible direction.
 The particles, atoms or molecules which take part in scattering process
are known as scatterer.
Rayleigh’s law of scattering:
 According to this law the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power
of the wavelength () of the incident light provided that the size of the scattering particles (scatterer)
are much smaller than .
i.e. mathematically,
1
I  4 (when a << )

(a = Diameter of the scatterer)
 Since The wavelength order of visible spectrum
V<I<B<G<Y<O<R
So the order of intensity of scattered light will be:
V > I > B > G >Y >O > R
Note: For a >>, that is large scattering object (e.g. rain drops, large dust or ice particles)
this law is not valid, All the wavelengths are scattered nearly equal. Thus clouds having
drop lets of water with size greater than the wavelength of light are generally white.

Blue colour of the sky:

 This phenomena is due to the scattering of sun light by the earth’s atmosphere.
 When the sun light (white) enters the earth’s atmosphere the scattering of different wave length
(colours) of light take place due to the atoms and molecules of the atmosphere.
 We know that the wavelength of violet, indigo, blue is much smaller than that of red end
wavelengths.
But According to Rayleigh’s law of scattering
1
Intensity of scattered light (I)
4
So the light of shorter wavelength of the sun light (i.e. violet, indigo, blue) is scattered more than that
of red colour of light. The scattered blue light enters our eyes and hence the sky appears blue.
This is possible only if the earth’s atmosphere is clean and pollution free.
Note: In fact violet light having shorter wavelength gets scattered even more than the blue light, but
since our eyes are more sensitive to blue than violet so we see the sky blue.

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PHYSICS CLASSES +2. SC. 2ND YR. 2018-2019

Reddish sun at sunrise and sunset:

 The red appearance of sun at sun rise and sun set is also due to the scattering of light.
 When the sun is near the horizon at sun rise and sun set, the light from sun travels a larger distance
through the earth atmosphere to reach our eyes.
So according to Rayleigh’s law, the blue light and shorter wave length are completely
scattered away by the gas particles therefore the least scattered light that reach our eyes is of larger
wavelength i.e. the red end, which give rise to the reddish appearance of the sun
 However light from the sun overhead would travel relatively shorter distance at noon, so the sun
appears white as only a little of the blue and violet light are scattered.

Note: Usually danger signals are red in colour because this colour of light scattered the
least, even in fog and smoke condition. so the signal can be seen from very large distance.

POLARISATION
 The phenomena of polarisation can be explained only by assuming transverse character of light
wave.
 Since sound wave is longitudinal in nature, so this wave cannot be polarised.

Longitudinal waves: These are the waves in which displacement of the particle of the
medium is along the direction of propagation of wave.
Transverse waves: These are the waves in which displacement of the particle of the
medium is on the plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation of wave.
 But light does not require any medium and can propagate in vacuum, The quantity that changes with
space and time in terms of which wave equation of light is written is the electric field existing in
space.
 Here we need to know that electric field vector E (called as light vector) is transverse to the
direction of propagation of light.
Unpolarised light and polarised light & their representation:
Unpolarised light:
 The light having vibration of electric field vector along all possible straight lines in a plane
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of light is said to be unpolarised light.
 It is symmetrical about its direction of propagation of light.
 Ordinary light or natural light has such property. Therefore they are unpolarised light.

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PHYSICS CLASSES +2. SC. 2ND YR. 2018-2019

Representation:
 In an unpolarised beam the vibrations take place along all possible directions at right angles to the
direction of propagation of light. Therefore it is represented by a star as shown in fig. a.
 An unpolarised light can also be represented as shown in fig. b.
The double arrows represent the
vibrations in the plane of paper and
small dots represent vibrations
perpendicular to the plane of paper.

Polarised light:
 The light having vibration of electric field vector only along a single straight line in a plane
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of light is said to be unpolarised light.
 Since the vibration is one-sided, therefore, there is lack of symmetry about the direction of propagation
of light.
Representation:
 In the polarised beam of light the vibrations
are along a single straight line.
 If they are parallel to the plane of the paper,
they are represented by arrows while that
perpendicular to the plane of the paper is
represented by dots.

Polarisation:
The phenomenon of restricting the vibrations of a light vector (i.e., electric field vector) in a
particular direction in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation light is called
polarisation of light.
Or
The phenomena of asymmetry of vibration of electric field vector about the direction of
propagation of light is called polarisation.
Plane of vibration:
The plane containing the direction of vibration and direction of propagation of light is called the plane
of vibration.

Plane of polarisation:
The plane containing the direction of propagation of light, but containing no vibrations is called the
plane of polarisation.
Clearly the plane of vibration and the plane of polarisation are mutually perpendicular.

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PHYSICS CLASSES +2. SC. 2ND YR. 2018-2019

Polarises:
 A polariser is an optical filter that can convert an unpolarised beam of light into a polarised beam by
blocking light wave of other polarisation.
Ex: Tourmaline crystal, Nicol prism, Polaroid.
Analyser:
 It is an polariser which helps which analyses whether the light is polarised or not.

Explanation:
When a beam of unpolarised light is allowed to pass through the polariser (P) then a part of light is
transmitted.
If now another polarizer (A) is placed at some distance from ‘P’ such that its transmission axes parallel to
that of P, then the light from P completely transmits through A.
If the polariser A is rotated then the intensity of light coming from this decreases and become zero when it
perpendicular to P and said to be in crossed position.
Since the second polariser analyses the polarising nature of light hence it is known as Analyser.
LAW OF MALUS’:
 This law states that “the intensity of the polarised light transmitted through the analyser varies as the
square of the cosine of the angle between the plane of transmission of the analyser and the plane of the
polariser.”
Explanation:
 Let A be the amplitude of the plane polarised light and  be the angle
between the planes of transmission of the analyser and the polariser.
 The amplitude A may be resolved into two components parallel and
perpendicular to the plane of transmission of analyser. Evidently the
former component (i.e., A cos ) is transmitted by the analyser; while
the latter is blocked reflected.
 From law of Malus, the intensity of the transmitted beam is:
I  cos2 
I = K (A cos )2
I = K A2 cos2  = I0 cos2 . (where I0 = KA2)
 This law does not hold when the incident light is unpolarised. Because in unpolarised light the angle 
made by the electric field vector with the polarising direction of the polariser is not constant.
 Thus the intensity of the beam transmitted from a polariser is given by
1 1
I  I 0 cos2   I0 (since average value of cos2  over all values of  is )
2 2
 Hence an ideal polariser is one that transmits 50% of the incident unpolarised light as plane polarised
one.

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PHYSICS CLASSES +2. SC. 2ND YR. 2018-2019

POLARISATION OF LIGHT BY REFLECTION:

 When an ordinary light or unpolarised light falls obliquely on a glass slab, it is partly reflected and
partly refracted. It is found that both the reflected and refracted light are partial polarised.
 The vibration of incident unpolarised light may be resolved in two direction: namely parallel &
perpendicular to the plane of incidence.
 The reflected light is only due to the component perpendicular to the plane of incidence : whereas
transmitted light is due to components parallel to the plane of incidence.
Explanation:
These vibrations move in two directions transverse to the refracted wave. As the arrows are parallel to the
direction of reflected wave, they cannot send energy along the direction of reflected light.
Brewster law:
 In 1881, sir David Brewster performed a series of experiment to study the polarisation of light by
reflection.
 Brewster’s law states that: The tangent of angle of polarisation (ip) for a given medium is numerically
equal to the refractive index () of that medium .
Explanation: M
 Let’s consider AB is a ray of ordinary light is
incident on a transparent surface of A.R.I. , so that
it is partly reflected and partly refracted.
 It is observed that for a particular angle of
incidence the reflected light is completely polarised
represented by OB & OC respectively.
 This particular angle of incidence is called
polarising angle or Brewster’s angle (ip)
Then according to Brewster’s law;
N
 = tan ip
Brewster also found that the reflected and refracted rays (OB & OC) perpendicular to each other at
polarising angle.
sin i p
From this law;   tan i p  `
cos i p
sin i p
From Snell’s law;  = (where r is the angle of refraction)
cos r
 cos i p  sin r
 
 cos i p  cos  r 
2 

 ip  r
2

 ip  r 
2
But MON =  (as MN is the normal to refracting surface)
 MOB +BOC + NOC = 

 i p  BOC  r  

 BOC  
2
Hence we concluded that; whenever the reflected and refracted beam of light are perpendicular to each other
the reflected beam is plane polarised.
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Applications and Uses of polarised light and Polaroid:

01. Polaroid is used as windows in train and aeroplanes. One of the Polaroid is fixed while the other
Polaroid can be rotated to have the desired intensity of light.
02. The light reflected from the bright surfaces produces glare in the eye. This can avoided the bearing sun
glasses made of Polaroid with vertical transmission axes, which produce less intensified light.
03. Polaroid are used to eliminate the dazzle from the bead lights of cars, buses etc.
04. They are used to record and reproduce three dimensional moving pictures and also used in
photographic cameras.
05. The microscopes fitted with Polaroid enable us to see very minute particles which are otherwise not
seen properly due to the glare of light.
06. L.C.D. i.e. liquid crystal display in calculators, watches, TV, computers etc. uses the principle of
polarisation to form numbers, letters and pictures.

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