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# On what factors does the extent of polarization depend?

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## Polarisation:Polarization (also polarisation) is a property of transverse waves that specifies their geometrical orientation.The oscillation direction in a transverse wave is perpendicular to the wave's motion direction.It is also defined as dipole moment per unit volume. Mathematically it is given as: $\mathrm{P}=\mathrm{np}$Here, $\mathrm{P}$ is the dipole moment; $\mathrm{n}$ is the number of atoms per unit volume, $\mathrm{p}$ is the polarization.The extent of polarization depends on:Potential Energy: In an external electric field E, the work done by the dipole is stored as the potential energy of dipole U given as: $\mathrm{U}=\mathrm{PECos\theta }$Here, U is the potential energy, P is the net dipole moment, and E is the electric field.From the expression, we can infer that as potential energy increases, the dipole will increase hence the polarisation will increase.Thermal Energy:If the temperature increases, there will more random orientation of the dipole, so the dipole will decrease, and hence polarisation will also decrease.

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