Polarization

Objectives

• To understand the term polarisation

• To see applications of polarisation

Polarisation is a wave property. But not all waves can exhibit this property.In a transverse wave, the oscillations are at right angles to the direction of travel. The plane of this oscillation defines the polarisation of the wave. Here are two waves travelling towards us.We say that wave A is vertically plane-polarised, and wave B is horizontally plane-polarised.

Vertical oscillations Horozontal

1934