Physics Demo Manual

Due to Physics Building renovations, the lead time to set up demo requests has increased due to the need to transport equipment across campus. Please be kind and let me know well ahead of time what you need.

Geometrical Optics  Diffraction  Interference  Color  Polarization   video  - Polarization of Light   video  - Polarization of Microwaves  Polarization by Reflection  Brewster's angle  Optical Activity in Corn Syrup  Birefringence  Polarization by Scattering  The Eye

video  - Polarization of Microwaves Purpose: Show the polarization property of microwaves. Procedure:   DEMO VIDEO DOWNLOAD / no audio / 1920x1080 / 24.19Mb/s / 355MB size     DEMO VIDEO DOWNLOAD / no audio / 854x480 / 5.69Mb/s / 81MB size   Hold a grid of parallel wires in a microwave beam and rotate the grid. Observe the change in transmitted microwave power in the detector. In the figure below, the source is on the left, the detector on the right. Microwaves are linearly polarized coming out of the source along the 0-deg/180-deg mark (horizontal plane in the picture). The horizontal orientation of the metal bars blocks the microwaves such that the detector is minimum. Metal bars oriented perpendicular (vertical) to the microwave polarization (horizontal) allows them to pass such that the detector is maximum.