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How to Calculate Brewster's Angle

When light strikes a surface, part of the light is reflected and part of the light penetrates (refracts). The relative amounts of this reflection and refraction depend on the substances the light is passing through and also on the angle that the light strikes the surface. There is an optimum angle--depending on the substances--that will allow the maximum refraction (penetration). This optimum angle is known as Brewster's angle after the Scottish physicist David Brewster.

Calculator
Table of refraction coefficients

Instructions

- 1
  Calculate Brewster's angle for ordinary polarized white light using the formula: theta = arctan (n1/n2) where theta is Brewster's angle and n1 and n2 are the refraction indexes of the two media.
- 2
  Calculate the best angle for light to strike glass for maximum penetration. From a table of refraction indexes find that the refraction index for air is 1.00 and the refraction index for glass is 1.50. Brewster's angle will be arctan (1.50/1.00) = arctan (1.50) = 56 degrees (approximately).
- 3
  Calculate the best angle for light to strike water for maximum penetration. From a table of refraction indexes find that the refraction index for air is 1.00 and the refraction index for water is 1.33. Brewster's angle will be arctan (1.33/1.00) = arctan (1.33) = 53 degrees (approximately).

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