P3D Re Pola whatever

[Peter Homer <P.J.Homer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wrote

>>A quarter plate (quarter wave plate) or 90 degree retarder definetly
>>converts linear to circular polarisation it does not depolarise however
it
>>does de-planepolarise and I am begining to see where the confusion is
>>coming in and perhaps the camera manafacturers are partly responsible.

To which Bob Maxey replied

>Come on, now....do not use terms that do not exist in the literature or in
>the world of the designers and engineers. "de-planepolorize" is not a term
>I can find references to. Leave it alone, Retarder is just fine, understood
>by industry and is consistent. A retarder is designed to do what it does.
>When the camera manufacturers describe and offer a circular device, they
>know what they are talking about.

You are correct about the term de-planepolarise it is not a quotation I
coined it myself to try to understand how the idea that a circular
polariser is a "depolariser" may have come about . It was another poster
that suggested the circular polarisers of camera manafacturers were in fact
linear polarisers followed by "depolarisers" I believed the camera
manafacturers when they called them circular polarisers. I only said
"Perhaps the camera manafacturers are partly responsible" because I
wondered if people got the idea from them that
their "circular" polarisers are actualy plane devices which then "depolarise"
because with respect to plane polarisation they do in effect do that and
this would be a simpler explanation than explaining circularily polarised
light to the general public.     P.J.Homer



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