Theoretical predictions of the changes in the irradiance and color of light beams traveling in sugared water caused by optical rotation phenomena, and their possible applications for educational purposes

Abstract

The coloring phenomena caused by optical rotation of polarized light beams in sugared water can be an appropriate subject for use as an educational tool. In this paper, such coloring phenomena are studied in terms of theory, and the results are compared with experimental results. First, polarized laser beams in red, blue, or green were allowed to travel in sugared water of certain concentrations, and changes in the irradiance of the beams were measured while changing the distance between a pair of polarizing plates arranged in the sugared water. The angle of rotation was then determined for each color. An equation was established for predicting a theoretical value of the angle of rotation for laser beams of specific colors (wavelengths) traveling in sugared water of specific concentrations. The predicted results from the equation exhibited satisfactory agreement with the experimental values obtained from the measurements. In addition, changes in the irradiance of traveling laser beams, as well as the changes in colors observable for white light beams, were also predicted, resulting in good agreement with the observed results.

Demonstration tools for changes in visible colors of transmitting light beams to be caused by optical rotation in syrup as optical active material and their predictions

“…Predictions are performed by means of the authors' established theoretical mathematical expressions for calculating the angle of rotation or rotation power for a specific optical active material with respect to any wavelengths of light beams to be transmitted therein. Detailed explanations can be found in References [6][7].…”

“…The authors successfully realized theoretical predictions of the visible color changes in the phenomenon with sugared water [5][6] and then commercially-available syrup [7] being used as optical active material. In this paper, some results of the predicted visible colors and actually observed results are presented.…”