Troy University Physics Lab: Brewster’s Angle & Polarization Explained by Students
Join Noah Holman, a senior physics major at Troy University, and Joshua Flingane, a junior in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, as they demonstrate the Brewster’s Angle Experiment — a classic physics lab that reveals how light becomes polarized when it reflects off a surface at a specific angle.
In this video, Noah and Joshua explain step-by-step how:
A laser beam hits a glass panel at an angle
Part of the light passes through while some is reflected
At Brewster’s Angle, the reflected light becomes fully polarized
The intensity of polarized light changes as the slit’s angle is adjusted
Through this experiment, they show how unpolarized light (vibrating in all directions) can become polarized light (vibrating in just one direction) — one of the fundamental principles of optics and wave physics.