The Lives of Malus and His Bicentennial Law

Kahr, Bart; Claborn, Kacey

doi:10.1002/cphc.200700173

Cited by 39 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Malus gave a tentative explanation which was in accord with the wave theory of light: the reflected light was plane-polarized. [97] He soon devised the first polarizers and polariscopes which were based on the reflection of an (unpolarized) light beam at a certain angle (later known as Brewsters angle). Experimenting with polarized light soon became fashionable, and new discoveries followed, particularly in studies conducted by two of Malus compatriots: FranÅois Jean Dominique Arago and Jean-Baptiste Biot.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Crystallography before X‐ray Diffraction

Molčanov

Stilinović

2013

Angew Chem Int Ed

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Crystallography before X‐ray Diffraction

Molčanov

Stilinović

2013

Angew Chem Int Ed

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“…To appreciate this judgment the contemporary reader must first suspend what (s)he knows about crystal optics. Polarization of light by reflection had been just discovered by Malus, [7] and the classification of optical properties of crystals with external form was still several years away. [8,9] In 1812, Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) delivered a paper that explained optical rotation in remarkably contemporary terms.…”

Section: Discovery Of Optical Rotationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arago’s Best Paper

Kahr

Arteaga

2011

ChemPhysChem

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The year 2011 is the bicentennial of François Arago's discovery of optical rotation. The immediate usurpation of the study of optical activity by Jean-Baptiste Biot led to the first well-known judgments of the arrangements of atoms in space. Scientists are less aware that Arago achieved something far greater than his contributions to optics, by signing the 1848 decree that abolished slavery throughout the French Empire. Opposing attitudes of Arago and Biot toward abolition, foreshadowed in their early rift over optical rotation, were surprisingly exposed in mid-century developments in chiroptics. As shown in a recent book by Levitt, Arago sought a reinvention of the whole colonial plantation system consistent with Republican principles, while Biot tried to place the cane sugar industry and slave-based economy on the quantitative foundation of saccharimetry. A reevaluation of the circumstances of abolition can celebrate both societal evolution and optical rotation on the 200th birthday of the latter. Episodes from Arago's life that arguably created his predisposition toward abolition are emphasized: He was imprisoned several times as a young man and knew the loss of liberty, his brother Jacques witnessed slavery in Brazil and advocated abolition in travel books prepared with François, and finally, in writing the biography of the Marquis de Condorcet, the spirit behind the first, albeit impermanent French abolition of slavery in 1794, Arago found proof of concept for his comparable challenge. Curiously, the measurement of the optical rotation of crystals and sugar, the foci of Arago and Biot, respectively, remain among the greatest challenges in polarimetry. Current developments are reviewed with respect to chiroptical anisotropy and in vivo glucose detection driven by the pandemic of diabetes, a disease diagnosed polarimetrically by Biot that claimed the life of Arago.

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“…In 1808, Malus discovered that natural light becomes polarized by reflection and that the reflected light intensity varies from a maximum to a minimum when passing through a rotating calcite crystal. Nowadays it is known that not only calcite crystals but any other linear polarizer gives the same results working as an analyzer, in other words, a linear polarizer is a type of filter which modifies a beam of light whose resulting electric vector is oscillating in one plane [17]. An analyzer consists of another linear polarizer that will allow only the parallel component of the incident wave to pass through it.…”

Section: Polarization Liquid Crystal Displays and Malus's Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verification of Malus's Law using a LCD monitor and Digital Photography

Vertchenko

2016

Rev. Bras. Ensino Fís.

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An alternative laboratory experiment for verifying Malus's Law, as well as understanding concepts of photometry, polarization and image formation on liquid crystal displays using low cost materials is proposed. The experimental setup could be introduced to any undergraduate curriculum using readily available tools, such as a digital camera, polarizer removed from a cell phone and a LCD laptop screen. A fairly amount of photometric data was collected and analyzed by an astronomical image processing software resulting in a successful verification of Malus's Law.

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The Lives of Malus and His Bicentennial Law

Cited by 39 publications

References 67 publications

Chemical Crystallography before X‐ray Diffraction

Chemical Crystallography before X‐ray Diffraction

Arago’s Best Paper

Verification of Malus's Law using a LCD monitor and Digital Photography

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