Question

When an unpolarised light beam passes through a double refracting medium, it splits up into two beams called ordinary ray and extraordinary ray. Consider the following statements.

(a). Intensities of the both rays are equal.

(b). Refractive index of the ordinary ray remains constant.

(c). Refractive index of the extraordinary ray does not remain constant.

(d). Both the rays are polarized.  

Answer 1

Correct option  (b) and (c) 

Explanation:

when an unpolarised light beam passes through a double refracting medium it splits into two beams viz extraordinary ray which has different velocity in different directions and other is ordinary ray whose velocity in all directions is same. Both these are plane polarized and the plate of polarizations of these are perpendicular to each other.