How do Men’s Polarized Sunglasses Work? Put aside the frame of your sunglass that can be made of wood, metal or plastic in the shape that appeals to you. The glass is important. You have plain glasses that may be clear or tinted to varying degrees of darkness. Then you have polarized glass. These glasses reduce glare and are perfect when you are out on ice or while driving or on the sea.
Polarized Light Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation and waves in most light sources radiate in all planes perpendicular to the plane of propagation. This is why, when you are driving with the Sun in front of you, it can reflect and cast a glare. This happens on polished and smooth reflecting surfaces like water and ice as well as metal and plastics.
Polarizing Materials and Light Planes There are certain crystals such as those of potassium iodide and calcite that have a unique lattice structure. The lattice permits only certain light waves to pass through that are perpendicular at a certain angle. This quality is made use of in polarizing glasses and polarizing filters as well as LCD displays in smartphones and TVs. If you rotate the glass with a coating of polarizing material you will see that at a certain angle the glare vanishes. If two such polarizing glasses are kept so that the lattice structure is at 90 degrees angle to each other, virtually no light passes through but that is not desirable in polarized glasses that are meant to cut out glare.