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AP Physics 2
14.3 Boundary Behavior of Waves and Polarization
IntermediateMCQConceptual20.1k
A light ray traveling down and to the right in air strikes a horizontal boundary separating air above from a transparent medium below. At the point of incidence, a dashed vertical normal line extends above and below the boundary. A reflected ray travels up and to the right at angle \(\theta_p\) relative to the normal. A refracted ray travels down and to the right into the lower medium at angle \(\theta_r\) relative to the normal. A right-angle symbol indicates a \(90^\circ\) angle between the reflected ray and the refracted ray. No other labels, lines, text, or axes appear.
Light ray incident on a transparent medium at the polarizing angle \(\theta_p\).
A beam of unpolarized light traveling in air (\(n_{\text{air}} = 1.0\)) strikes the flat surface of a transparent plastic block. The reflected light is observed to be completely linearly polarized when the angle of incidence is \(\theta_p = 60^\circ\). The plastic block is then replaced with a glass block that has a greater index of refraction (\(n_{\text{glass}} > n_{\text{plastic}}\)). How does the new polarizing angle \(\theta_p'\) for the glass block compare to \(60^\circ\), and why?

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