Circular Polarizer

Fredjikrang · Post by **Fredjikrang** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:37 pm

For the longest time I was trying to figure out how a circular polarizer worked. And then I realized that circular described the physical shape of the filter, not the polarizer pattern! I then proceeded to feel pretty stupid. ;D

Post by **Laser Jock** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:24 am

No, you actually had it right the first time.

I'm too lazy to explain it when Wikipedia has all the details (and even diagrams!), so I'll refer you to their page on circular polarization.

Apparently filters that produce circularly polarized light are sometimes used in photography; they first allow through only linearly polarized light and then pass it through a quarter-wave plate. I had no idea it had any use in photography; I know about it mainly from optics and because we make use of circularly polarized light in the physics lab where I work.

Sorry for going all physics nerd on you, but it's kind of a cool principle and I didn't want you to miss out on it.

Fredjikrang · Post by **Fredjikrang** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:58 am

Ooo. Interesting! Guess I should have actually looked into it a bit more closely!

vorpal blade · Post by **vorpal blade** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:04 pm

Good answer Laser Jock, and nicely put. I think I would have approached it differently and somehow managed to insult and offend everyone. So, thanks for the example.

krebscout · Post by **krebscout** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 5:20 pm

vorpal blade wrote:Good answer Laser Jock, and nicely put. I think I would have approached it differently and somehow managed to insult and offend everyone. So, thanks for the example.

Ha.

vorpal blade · Post by **vorpal blade** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:09 am

I guess it did sound like a joke, Krebscout, but I'm really not kidding. Laser Jock started off by saying that Fred had it right the first time. He could have started off by saying that Fred was all wrong. It's much nicer to point out what someone is doing right than what they are doing wrong.

Then, instead of sounding like the world's expert on polarization he just referred Fred to some simple articles that explained it. Laser Jock didn't claim to have known all this all along, he explained how he also had learned while looking it up. But he did give a reference to his experience with circular polarizers.

Finally Laser Jock apologized for "going all physics nerd," but in a kind way explained he just wanted to share something cool.

I probably would have tried to explain it in terms of rotating polarization vectors, and irritated everyone.

No offense meant.

krebscout · Post by **krebscout** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:56 am

I know it wasn't meant as a joke. Its truthfulness is a sign, I think, that many people here (myself included) are ready to jump on anything you say.

So maybe it was a laugh of embarrassment?

vorpal blade · Post by **vorpal blade** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:03 pm

No need to be embarrassed. It is understandable, and my fault. It is hard to change perceptions, so for some time I've wondered what to do about the problem. Here are the options I have as I see them:

1. Do nothing. Continue to be the one many people love to jump on or ignore. Have no effect, except to harden opposition to what I believe.

2. Start anew with a fresh name and persona. See how long it takes for people to figure out that it is just the same old Vorpal Blade.

3. Quit. Take up a new hobby, like dog fighting. (Okay, I'm joking about the dog fighting.)

What would you and others advise me to do?

TheBlackSheep · Post by **TheBlackSheep** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:20 pm

I'm sorry, VB.

Maybe if you just get a new 'nym and soften it up a little. Though you'd still have to post under Vorpal sometimes because the MB just wouldn't be the same without you.

TheBlackSheep · Post by **TheBlackSheep** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:22 pm

I didn't mean to sound as patronizing as that sounds. Yes, what you write often makes me want to strangle puppies. But still, it just wouldn't be the same without you.

vorpal blade · Post by **vorpal blade** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:18 pm

Strangle puppies? Ouch. I didn't know it was so bad.

I thought of a couple of new 'nyms which would make it easy to soften it up a little. One would be "Vorpal Bunny." Everyone loves cute little bunnies. They're so warm and cuddly. And besides, there is already a Vorpal Bunny fan club in existence.

The other 'nym is "Gay Blade." Under that name I would pretend to be a young man struggling with a same-sex attraction. I bet with a name like that we could be good friends, TheBlackSheep!

Please repress any urge to strangle puppies this post may have caused you.

NerdGirl · Post by **NerdGirl** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:42 pm

In all seriousness, I think you should go with option number 1. Even though I disagree with a lot of your opinions, you've helped me to understand why you have those opinions, which has somewhat improved my views on conservative people in general. In the past I've had a lot of issues with people who think the way you do, which mainly comes from some complicated and pretty awful things that happened to my family when I was growing up (which I won't get into in public on the interwebs), but you've helped me to see that people with what I would call very right-wing world views have those views for reasons other than hating everyone who's different from them. You haven't changed my mind about anything, but I would say that you've softened my opposition to some of the things you believe rather than hardened it. You honestly seem like a really decent and caring person (even if you may not always come across as such, I think the fact that you're concerned about how you come across says a lot of good things about you). It's been helpful to me to see that very politically conservative members of the church can be decent and caring, and I'm starting to think and hope that maybe the majority of the right-wing Mormon demographic is more like you and less like the handful of them that I grew up around.

TheBlackSheep · Post by **TheBlackSheep** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 12:19 am

Ha, VB, your new pic and signature make me laugh. And it isn't that bad.

And you know me and gay people. There might be hope for us yet.

vorpal blade · Post by **vorpal blade** » Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:56 am

Thank you very much, NerdGirl. It is amazing the effect a few "representatives" of a particular group can have on our gut feelings about that group. I believe I'm only a little to the right of most of my friends, but some of my friends may be more to the right than I am. And I believe my friends are a lot like me in most ways. I'm more to the right than others in my family, some of whom I consider quite a bit to the left. My wife's family is very right wing, however. But they are all good people.

And TheBlackSheep, I notice we now have a Gay Blade registered.