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| Polarization: Light Waves, Rainbows, and Cheap Sunglasses |
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SPEAKER:
Walter Lewin
Professor of Physics
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ABOUT THE LECTURE:
In this lecture taped before a live audience of elementary and middle school students and their families, MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin explains polarization, and demonstrates properties of light in rainbows, smoke and the sky. He answers the perennial question, "why is the sky blue?" and creates a red sunset in the laboratory.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Walter H. G. Lewin is well-known at MIT for his lectures on both Newtonian mechanics and electricity and magnetism. Videos of his lectures can be viewed on the web via the Open CourseWare and Pivot links below.
Lewin received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1965 at the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands, and has been a member of the MIT Physics faculty since 1966. During his MIT career, Lewin's investigations in astrophysics have included satellite and high-altitude balloon X-ray observations, world-wide coordinated observations of optical and X-ray bursts, and international collaborations observing X-ray sources. In addition, Lewin has collaborated over the years with various artists on sky art events. From 1998 to 2000, Lewin worked with MIT's Center for Advanced Educational Services on creating the Physics Interactive Video Tutor project -- video help sessions for freshman physics students.
Walter Lewin's home page
Walter Lewin's Course 8.02
on OCW
Lewin 8.03 at OCW
NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index):
Demonstrations:
Polarization: 35:20
Rainbows: 59:38
Blue Smoke: 1:09:30
Red Sunset: 1:22:13
During the live lecture, many of the colors discussed were visible as described. However since this lecture was video taped and then compressed in order to create video streams, some of the rainbow colors may not have survived the compression process.
The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on 2003-03-31.
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