Model of Total Reflection by Richard P. Baker, Baker #403

Richard P. Baker, a mathematician at the University of Iowa, made a series of models relating to the relative intensity of polarized light transmitted by an isotropic medium. In all of them, the ratio of the magnitude of two electromagnetic vectors is plotted extending vertically, as a function of the index of refraction of the medium and the angle of incidence of the light. In Baker’s scheme, the vectors D_s, E_s, and R_s lie in the surface between the two media, while the vectors D_p, E_p, and R_p lie in the plane of polarization. The E vectors represent the electric force, the R vectors the reflected wave, and the D vectors the refracted wave. This particular model plots values of the ratio of intensities R_s / R_p, a function equal to sin (θ-iψ) / sin (θ+iψ). Here θ is the angle of incidence of the light and φ, the angle of refraction, equals in degrees 90-iψ.

The model has a wooden base and sides, with a plaster top. A typed paper tag attached to the side reads: No. 403 (/) FRESNEL TOTAL REFLEXION. Baker associated this model with “change of phase of R _s and R_p.”

References:

Accession File.

R. P. Baker, Mathematical Models, Iowa City, Iowa, 1931, p. 18.

Paul Drude, with C. Riborg Mann and Robert A. Millikan, translators, Theory of Optics, New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902, esp. pp. 279-280.

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