Practice portal › Electromagnetic Waves › Maxwell's Equations and the Production of EM Waves
Asked in GUJCET 2009 · Transverse, uncharged and polarised
Idea: only a transverse wave can be polarised, because only it has an oscillation perpendicular to the direction of travel that a polariser can select.
Radio waves, ultraviolet rays and X-rays are all electromagnetic waves, so all three are transverse and all three can be polarised.
Ultrasonic waves are sound waves of frequency above the audible range, and sound in a fluid is a longitudinal pressure wave.
Its oscillation is along the direction of travel, so there is no plane to pick out.
Hence ultrasonic waves are the ones that cannot be polarised.
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