[From: Light and Color, by Clarence Rainwater, Prof. of Physics, San Francisco State College, Original Project Editor Herbert S. Zim, Golden Press, NY, Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1971.]
Plane of vibration of a polarized light wave is usually unaffected in passing through a transparent material--it remains polarized in the same plane. Some optically active materials, however, rotate the plane of vibration in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Quartz crystals occur in both clockwise and counterclockwise varieties. Sugar solutions are also optically active. A chemist can determine the concentration of sugar in a solution by measuring the rotation of the plane of vibration when plane-polarized light is passed through the solution. A dextrose sugar solution causes a clockwise rotation; levulose sugar, a counterclockwise one. A device for measuring the angle of rotation of the plane of vibration is called a polariscope. A sacharimeter is a polariscope used in sugar analyses. [p. 54]
[Light and Color, by Clarence Rainwater, Prof. of Physics, San Francisco State College, Original Project Editor Herbert S. Zim, Golden Press, NY, Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1971.]
Copyright
The contents of this site, including all images and text, are for personal, educational, non-commercial use only. The contents of this site may not be reproduced in any form without proper reference to Text, Author, Publisher, and Date of Publication [and page #s when suitable].