/sci/ - Science & Math

I don't know why no one has posted an image like this, but it's much easier to understand with a visual aid. Unpolarized light has an infinite number of waves overlapped (called a "superposition") in an infinite number of orientations. A polarizer filters out all the waves except for those of a specific orientation. The resultant light has electrical and magnetic poles, kinda sorta like a magnet.

This is a layperson explanation and not 100% accurate, but it should get you started. Here's a video on the Faraday effect, which shows how the polarized light can then be manipulated by a magnetic field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhU-nNiAgtI