Source: cirosantilli/polarization-of-light

= Polarization of light

= Light polarization
{synonym}

This section discusses the pre-<photon> understanding of the <polarization of light>. For the photon one see: <photon polarization>.

https://polarization.com/history/history.html is a good page.

People were a bit confused when experiments started to show that light might be polarized. How could a wave that propages through a 3D homgenous material like <luminiferous aether> have polarization?? Light would presumably be understood to be analogous to a sound wave in 3D medium, which cannot have polarization. This was before <Maxwell's equations>, in the early 19th century, so there was no way to know.