This demo tests your understanding of light | Barber pole, part 1

Summary

Shining polarized light into sugar water reveals diagonal stripes of color. Why? Next video: https://youtu.be/aXRTczANuIs Steve Mould's video on the topic: https://youtu.be/975r9a7FMqc Help fund future projects: https://www.patreon.com/3blue1brown An equally valuable form of support is to simply share the videos.

Thanks to Quinn Brodsky for setting up the demo and to the MIT Physics Instructional Resources Lab for their help and materials, especially Josh Wolfe and Caleb Bonyun.

These animations are largely made using a custom Python library, manim. See the FAQ comments here: https://3b1b.co/faq#manim https://github.com/3b1b/manim https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim/

All code for specific videos is visible here: https://github.com/3b1b/videos/

The music is by Vincent Rubinetti. https://www.vincentrubinetti.com https://vincerubinetti.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-3blue1brown https://open.spotify.com/album/1dVyjwS8FBqXhRunaG5W5u

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When white light is shone through a linearly polarizing filter and then through a cylinder of sugar water, it creates diagonal stripes of color. The interaction with sugar water separates the light into different bands of color, forming spiral helixes down the tube. The twisting rate of the light depends on its frequency, resulting in distinct wiggling directions for each color. The amount of each color remains the same, but the polarization directions are separated out. The reason for the diagonal stripes and the dependence on frequency is still unknown. The colors appear due to the interaction between circularly polarized light and the chiral nature of sucrose molecules. The twist in the stripes is explained by the different effects of right-handed and left-handed circularly polarized light. The color separation is a result of the slowing down of light when it passes through a material. The explanation of these phenomena aims to provide a fundamental understanding of what light is.

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