Activities

Students investigate the effects of polarizing filters on light transmission. They place two polarizing filters in between a light source and a light level meter. Then, they rotate the filters relative to one another. Finally, they record the intensity of the transmitted light as a function of the rotational angle.

Students make a plot of intensity vs. angle of rotation. They study its form and make inferences about the relationship between intensity and angle.

Finally, students plot the function y = cos(x)² along with their data on the graph. They modify the equation to find the best-fit curve for their data sets.

They use this information to infer the general relationship between light intensity and the angle of rotation of the polarizing filters.