Physics Photo of the Week
February 15, 2013
Ordinary Ice
This is a photo of a
sheet of ordinary ice that had formed in a rectangular
bucket overnight in mid-January, 2013. This piece of
ice was very clear when held up to normal light.
However, if you wear ordinary polarizing sunglasses, hold
the slab of ice up to the blue sky on a clear day, the ice
exhibits these amazing crystalline patterns of contrasting
colors!
The common blue sky is polarized. It consists of
sunlight scattered by the pure air molecules in the
atmosphere. (See
PPOW May 8, 2009 for a demonstration of the polarized blue
sky). The light from the polarized blue
sky is generally vibrating horizontally if the Sun is high
in the sky. That is, as you are looking toward the
blue sky in this picture the light waves that reach your
eyes are vibrating left-to-right. Your polarizing
sunglasses are such that they block the light that is
polarized horizontally, but transmit the vertically
polarized light. Thus the blue sky in this photo
appears quite dark (May
8, 2009 PPOW). The camera is wearing a
polarizing filter
similar to polarizing sunglasses an perpendicular to the
horizontal plane of blue sky polarization. The 
transparent
ice is essentially placed between "crossed polarizers" - a
common technique for examining crystal structures in
microscopy, thermal stresses in plastics and glass, and even
the stresses in clear adhesive tape.
The image at the left shows a slab of ice formed on the night of Feb. 13, 2013 held up to the sky with no polarizing filter. The ice is transparent and hardly visible without the polarizing optics!
Many clear crystalline compounds (water ice included) are
bifringent. They exhibit different
refractive indices for different directions for the
vibrating waves of light. This is primarily due to the
different spacings between molecules in different
directions. Basically if the molecules are closer
together in one direction, the speed of light for waves
polarized in the direction in which the molecules are closer
together is slower than for the light waves polarized
parallel to the less-dense direction. If the principle
axis of the crystal is oriented parallel to one of the
polarizer axes, the light is reduced. If the principle
axis is at an angle about half-way between that of the
crossed polarizers, the light is often colored due to
interference of the emerging light. The
animation here alternates between two perpendicular
orientations of the ice sheet. Notice how the large
distinct crystals in the center of the slab alternate
between light and dark, or blue or red.
Physics Photo of the Week is published weekly during the academic year on Fridays by the Warren Wilson College Physics Department. These photos feature interesting phenomena in the world around us. Students, faculty, and others are invited to submit digital (or film) photographs for publication and explanation. Atmospheric phenomena are especially welcome. Please send any photos to dcollins@warren-wilson.edu.
All photos and discussions are copyright by Donald Collins or by the person credited for the photo and/or discussion. These photos and discussions may be used for private individual use or educational use. Any commercial use without written permission of the photoprovider is forbidden.
Click here to see the Physics Photo of the Week Archive.
