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Birefringence facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Calcite
A calcite crystal laid upon a paper with some letters showing the double refraction

Birefringence (or double refraction) happens when light is passed through a special material and it splits into two different rays of light. Calcite crystals and boron nitride are two good examples of materials that cause birefringence. Just as a prism splits light into a large number of colors, birefringence splits light into two images of the same color. You see this as a "double image".

Images for kids

  • Crystal on graph paper

    A calcite crystal laid upon a graph paper with blue lines showing the double refraction

  • Calcite and polarizing filter

    Doubly refracted image as seen through a calcite crystal, seen through a rotating polarizing filter illustrating the opposite polarization states of the two images.

  • Cmglee London Embassy Gardens pool polariser

    View from under the Sky Pool, London with coloured fringes due to stress birefringence of partially polarised skylight through a circular polariser

  • Food Polarization-Dierking

    Sandwiched in between crossed polarizers, clear polystyrene cutlery exhibits wavelength-dependent birefringence

  • Birefringence Stress Plastic

    Color pattern of a plastic box with "frozen in" mechanical stress placed between two crossed polarizers

  • Rutile birefringence

    Birefringent rutile observed in different polarizations using a rotating polarizer (or analyzer)

  • Birifrangence k-surface

    Surface of the allowed k vectors for a fixed frequency for a biaxial crystal (see eq. 7).

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Birrefringencia para niños

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Birefringence Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.