A rather delightful optical phenomenon, related to sun glints observed by the seashore, is illustrated: tiny spots of lights can be seen to move randomly in front of an observer wearing sunglasses with polarized lenses. On the seabed beneath the shallow waters, luminous wriggles can also be detected with or without sunglasses. By means of Fresnel equations, a plausible explanation of these two optical phenomena is given.
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See supplemental material at
https://www.scitation.org/doi/suppl/10.1119/10.0001882
for a comparison between the optical effects seen with and without polarizing
lenses.
© 2021 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2021
American Association of Physics Teachers
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