polarization

The production or condition of polarity, as.

A process or state in which rays of light exhibit different properties in different directions, especially the state in which all the vibration takes place in one plane.

The partial or complete polar separation of the positive and negative electric charges in a nuclear, atomic, molecular, or chemical system.

A division into two conflicting or contrasting groups.

In geometry, the passing to or taking the polar: of two polar figures or formulas either results from the other by polarization.

In biology, the replacement or regeneration of lost parts in the axial or stere-ometrical relations which they exhibited before they were lost. See polarity, 1 .

In electricity, the property of acting differently according as the current, electric or magnetic, is in one direction or the opposite direction.

The state, or the act producing the state, of having, as a ray, different properties on its different sides, so that opposite sides are alike, but the maximum difference is between two sides at right angles to each other. This is the case with polarized light.

Less properly, the acquisition of polarity, in any sense. Also spelled polarisation.

The condition thus produced. Thus, in the electrolysis of water polarization of the electrodes takes place, the one becoming coated with a film of oxygen, the other with a film of hydrogen gas. The phrase is most frequently used to describe the process by which the negative plate in a voltaic cell becomes coated with hydrogen, with the result of giving rise to a reverse electromotive force, and thus of weakening the current. On the methods of preventing this, see cell, 8.