today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description
read >8:30 a.m. Alzheimer’s Resource Center Volunteer Training See Event Description
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza
read >9 a.m. Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation Speakers’ Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens' Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Fall Rummage Sale Arcata United Methodist Church
read >9:30 a.m. AAUW Meeting See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Little River State Beach Restoration See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Sierra Club Headwaters Hike See Event Description
read >10 a.m. Lanphere Dunes Guided Walk See Event Description
read >10 a.m. 5th Annual Synergy Fair Arcata Community Center
read >10 a.m. Go Green and Boost Your Bottom Line Wharfinger Building
read >11 a.m. Sustaining Excellence and Enthusiasm in Health, Relationships and Work Carlo Theater (Dell'Arte)
read >noon KEET's Kids Club Morris Graves Museum of Art
read >1:30 p.m. Humboldt County Historical Society Humboldt County Library
read >2 p.m. Arcata Marsh Field Trip Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center
read >4 p.m. Woodside Preschool’s 36th Wine and Ale Tasting Gala Adorni Recreation Center
read >4:30 p.m. Harvest Dinner and Bazaar Humboldt Grange
read >5 p.m. A Toast to Music Christ Episcopal Church
read >5:30 p.m. Elvis and the Hound Dogs + Stolen Taxi Trinidad Town Hall
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Arts Alive! Various Locations
read >6 p.m. Day of the Dead Exhibition Ink People Center for the Arts
read >6 p.m. Bar None 10th Anniversary Eureka Labor Temple
read >6 p.m. Randy Spicer Piante Gallery
read >6 p.m. Gallery Open for Arts Alive! Four Paths Gallery and Studio
read >6:30 p.m. ShinBone (Blues R&B) Eureka Theater
read >7 p.m. Mike Craighead and Sari Baker Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >7 p.m. Harvest Concert Arcata Presbyterian Church
read >7 p.m. 2 Left Feet Dance Project Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >7:30 p.m. Joe & Me Cafe Mokka
read >7:30 p.m. Cyrano de Begerac Eureka High School Auditorium
read >7:30 p.m. Torch Song Summit Eureka Women's Club
read >7:30 p.m. Jeff DeMark and the LaPatinas Westhaven Center for the Arts
read >8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse
read >8 p.m. Humboldt Bay Brass Band Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU
read >9 p.m. Synergy Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. Arts Alive! with Akaboom Sound Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. Tempest WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9 p.m. Back In The Daze Dance Party Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9 p.m. Swingin' Country Band (country) Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. The Zygoats + Alder Camp (rock) The Lil' Red Lion
read >9 p.m. DJ Knutz (funk) Muddy's Hot Cup
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. These United States (indie folk) Humboldt Brews
read >11 p.m. Hellbound Glory The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
May 29, 2008
Fossil Collagen
Collagen is the protein that holds our bodies together. It ...
read >May 22, 2008
Pumping Heat
If you own a refrigerator, you own a heat pump, ...
read >May 15, 2008
Fossils Alive
Living fossils" are living species that resemble ancient fossils. In ...
read >Photos
Polarized
By Don Garlick
If you wish to see submerged rocks ahead, or creatures in a tide pool, you need to wear Polaroid sunglasses. Their ability to reduce glare is a consequence of some very interesting physics. I will demonstrate, for example, that when you see light reflected from a surface, that light did not simply bounce off the surface. The light you see was actually produced by vibrating electrons within the illuminated liquid (or solid). Those electrons were made to vibrate by the primary light, and the vibrating electrons radiated secondary light which entered your eyes.
Light consists of electromagnetic waves, but we can here ignore the magnetic part. A light ray consists of countless individual photons with each photon's electric field oscillating at right angles to the ray (Diagram A). If the ray is polarized, all the photons share the same direction of oscillation. Unpolarized light is oscillating in all possible directions.
Consider unpolarized light illuminating water (Diagram B). At a certain angle your Polaroid glasses will completely block the reflected ray! That ray is perfectly polarized, and it departs the water at 90 degrees to the refracted ray! The explanation lies in the fact that electrons within the water molecules are induced to vibrate parallel to the electric fields of the refracted ray. Furthermore, electrons cannot radiate light in the direction of their vibration. Only those vibrations which cross your line of sight can yield light that enters your eyes. Hence, your eyes receive horizontally polarized light which will be blocked by Polaroid sunglasses. Although reflected light may appear to bounce off the water's surface, and you may see an image of the light source, the light actually originates from a thin layer of water near the surface. Interference between adjacent rays prevents radiation from below that thin layer.
Ladies, if your man declares that your skin is glowing or your hair is shining, he is really telling you the truth: Your electrons are visibly jiggling.






















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