What is the difference in perception of polarized light and unpolarized light? What difference does polarized light cause to our eyes?
Answer
Our eyes cannot see any difference between ordinary (i.e., unpolarized) and polarized light. You can check it yourself, if you look through a polarizer (for example, some sunglasses have one). All you can notice is that the world gets slightly darker (because you block roughly half the incoming light). In addition, some reflections might be reduced dramatically (that is, after all, one of the main points in using polarizers in sunglasses).
There are, however, other species (e.g., bees, as far as I know) that can see the difference but, unfortunately, nobody has been able to ask them what such a difference looks like...
No comments:
Post a Comment