Question 1: Natural light passes through a perfect polarizer.
a. What fraction of light passes through? A second polarizer is added with its axis oriented 22º relative to the first.
b. What fraction of light that passed through the first polarizer also passes through the second?
c. What fraction of the original natural light passes through both polarizers?
Question 2: You start with two polarizers oriented perpendicular to each other such that no light gets through Now you add a third polarizer in between these oriented 45° relative to both of them.
a. What fraction of light makes it through all three polarizers?
b. Now imagine that instead of the 45° polarizer, you insert a series of 9 polarizers, each oriented 9º relative to the previous polarizer (.e. 0°, 99, 18°, ... 72°, 81°, 90°, where the 0° and 90° were the original perpendicular polarizers).
What fraction of light passes through the system now?