Functions and Understandings of Optical Polarization in Classical and Quantum Understandings of Physics

Despite being fundamental to how they experience the world around them, humans have not properly understood how it behaves and functions. In fact, the classical understanding of light has only developed within the past 600 years. The scientific consensus in the time of Sir Isaac Newton held that light behaved such that it is like a particle, however certain phenomena and discoveries, like diffraction and polarization, would begin to show that light actually must behave like a wave. This wave theory of light was a very successful model that represented light extraordinarily well for its time. Despite this, evidence began to mount that light could actually be quantized, meaning that it has a base unit that it cannot be divided further from, with Albert Einstein advocating that light sometimes must be treated as a particle. This gave rise to quantum mechanics which installs something comparable to a hybrid between the particle and wave theories of light by treating light as being composed of particles known as photons that have wave-like characteristics. The wave theory of light, or classical physics, have different explanations of the characteristics of light and how it behaves, as well as diverging interpretations of the causes. In this essay, I will delve into the history of the theory of light, the major discoveries in the process, and the significance of these developments. In addition, I will consider the differences in the two major theories of light, the wave theory and the quantum mechanical perspective, and present notable phenomena through the lens of either ideology.