So I have just noticed (after 2 years of wearing) that my sunglasses darken certain monitors, give odd patterns to car windows.
And figured out that the lenses are polarised and that’s why.
Just yesterday, I tilted my head to stretch my neck and noticed depending on the angle, the sky was darker or lighter.
But my surroundings (trees, buildings, ground) didn’t change.
Why do only certain things get affected by polarised lenses?
In: Physics
Polarized lenses block light waves vibrating in a specific direction, usually horizontal, reducing glare from reflective surfaces like water or glass. Light from the sun is unpolarized, but when it bounces off flat surfaces, it becomes polarized. The sky’s light is partially polarized due to scattering by air molecules, so tilting your head changes how much polarized light the lenses block, making the sky appear darker or lighter. But light from most surroundings, like trees, buildings, and the ground, is not strongly polarized in a specific direction, so polarized lenses don’t significantly affect their appearance.
Because these things reflect (tinted windows), refract (sky) or emit (monitors) polarized light.
Normal, unpolarized light goes through polarized glasses the same no matter how you tilt them. Polarized light passes fully if it’s the same direction as the glasses’ filter, and gets stopped more and more if you tilt them.
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