What is polarization?
Everyone has experienced the discomfort caused by glare in intense sunlight. Very often, glare is caused by sunlight reflecting off surfaces like water, snow, or sand. Instead of diffusing the light in many directions, these surfaces absorb some of it, and reflect the rest- especially light waves that are horizontal.
Scientists call this selective reflection of horizontal light waves polarization. When you wear sunglasses, their lenses block out the annoying horizontal light with a tinted plastic filter set with tiny crystals that have been 'stretched' into a series of lines, like the slats of a picket fence. However, enough of vertical light gets through the filter to let you see well, and even read.
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