A study of the polarization of the light emitted by incandescent solid and liquid surfaces. II

Abstract

The main object of this research being to determine whether or not polarization by emission could be experimentally proven to be a phenomenon of refraction, Fresnel's laws for reflection and refraction, which have been shown by many experiments to accurately represent the facts, were now applied to the determination of the amounts of polarization which should be produced by single refraction of light passing through the boundary surface between uranium glass and air. In order to apply these laws it is necessary to assume that all of the light emitted by the uranium glass, whether coming from the surface molecules or from the interior layers, has undergone the process of refraction an assumption not contained in Arago's explanation of the cause of the phenomenon.