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An unpolarised light beam strikes a glass surface at Brewster's angle. Then

Asked in NEET 2024 · Brewster's law and polarisation by reflection

Answer: (2) The reflected light will be completely polarised but the refracted light will be partially polarised.

Step-by-step solution

At the Brewster angle the reflected and refracted rays are perpendicular to each other.

The vibration lying in the plane of incidence cannot be reflected in that direction, so the reflected light contains only the vibration perpendicular to the plane of incidence: it is completely polarised.

The refracted light contains all of the in-plane vibration and the rest of the perpendicular one, so it is only partially polarised.

Why the other options are wrong

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