What is Malus Law?

According to Malus’s rule, the square of the cosine of the angle formed between the polarizer’s plane and the analyzer’s transmission axes determines how much plane-polarized light changes in intensity as it passes through the device.

Malus’s Law is significant in optics and helps in understanding how polarized sunglasses work, how stress patterns in transparent materials can be studied, and in various other applications where control of light polarization is required.

Who is Etienne-Louis Malus?

Étienne-Louis Malus was a mathematician, physicist, engineer, and commander from France. Malus was born in France’s Paris. He served at the Institut d’Égypte’s mathematics department and took part in Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt.

Read More about Polarization of Light.

Malus Law

Malus Law, also known as Malus Law of Polarization, is a fundamental principle in optics that describes how the intensity of polarized light changes as it passes through a polarizer. It is named after Étienne-Louis Malus, a French physicist who formulated the law in 1808.

In this article, we will discuss the concept of Malus Law which describes the intensity of change in the intensity of polarized light.

Table of Content

  • What is Malus Law?
  • Malus Law Formula
  • Principles of Malus Law
  • Experimental for Malus Law
  • Limitations of Malus Law

Similar Reads

What is Malus Law?

According to Malus’s rule, the square of the cosine of the angle formed between the polarizer’s plane and the analyzer’s transmission axes determines how much plane-polarized light changes in intensity as it passes through the device....

Malus Law Formula

Malus noticed that when the crystal spun, the intensity changed from highest to minimum. Consequently, he suggested that A = A cosθ must be the amplitude of the reflected beam. Malus calculated the intensity by square-rooting the amplitude relation i.e. Io = Ao2....

Principles of Malus Law

According to Malus’ law, the polarizer’s angle affects how much-polarized light can flow through it....

Experimental for Malus Law

Malus Law Experiment. The goals of this experiment are to determine the connection between the intensity of light passed through the analyzer and the angle ‘′ between the polarizer and analyzer axes. The following equipment was used: The following are the experiment’s requirements: A laser diode....

Limitations of Malus Law

There are some limitations of this law in real life:...

Sample Questions on Malus Law

Question 1: What is the difference between unpolarized light and plane-polarized light?...

FAQs on Malus Law

1. State Malus Law....